Just Another Bruise
by Peacheh-Kate
Summary: Post Aliyah. Ziva is rescued from Somalia by Nick Clarke: CIA. What happens fourteen weeks after she left NCIS when they are reunited? Nick Clarke CIA and Lucy Carson NCIS OC.
1. Chapter One

_Hey, welcome to story number nine. This isn't even listed on my profile as being a to-do story. But it was in my head and then it came out and here it is. I wasn't even going to post it, but I couldn't help it. I can see an ENDING to this story, which most of my stories actually lack! ^^ _

_Enough rambling right?_

_Disclaimer: I own you. _

_P.S. I hope season seven is like this _v _and not like Gibbs/Tony/McGee/Abby/Vance/Ducky/Jimmy running to Ziva and being all "I'll never let you go again" and passionate kissing. I'm all for that on here, love a bit of fluff but I mean... This is fanfiction... not writer fiction. I don't want to see it. Rather read it. =] I thought the ending of Season six was fanfiction-y anyways. Ziva being tortured and beaten by a guy with a smoking problem. Who knew?_

_On with the show!_

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**Chapter One**

Ziva felt his hand grasping her wrist and she glanced up at him, his brown eyes looking at her she expected fear but only saw excitement. She blinked and opened her mouth utterly bewildered. They were running, they had been running, until they had reached a cliff edge. Below them, a long way below them was water. Ziva glanced over her shoulder to see three men running after them, they were a far distance away but the two of them were cornered. She looked back at Nick, Nick who had been her rock the past few months, who had saved her from Somalia and proceeded to add to the bruises of her African experience.

As if reading her mind he tugged on her wrist and whispered in her ear.

"One more bruise for the collection Zee." He whispered before pulling her off the cliff. He let go of her wrist immediately and they both fell down towards the river below them. It was deep and calm and seemed a lot further down than it was. Ziva hit the water head first, making sure her hands were in a diving position to protect her head. The water was cold and she shivered under the water. She kicked her legs and swam under the water to the edge of the cliff. She surfaced but only enough to see around her and take in a deep breath. She glanced up to see that the cliff edge was free of terrorists. She glanced around and saw Nick surface. She swam to him.

"Next time I'm in water with you I'm expecting a bikini." He chuckled and she couldn't help but think of those pictures. The bikini clad Ziva in LA prior to Jenny Shepard's death. Before everything went downhill and she lost her life at NCIS. Having said that, she was almost back in America, her new partner was a CIA operative Nick Clarke. Considering the CIA wasn't meant to operate on US soil they were meant to be there now on a case. Something went wrong, and now they were in a river trying to find a way to an airport, any airport. Ziva followed Nick as he swam down the river and clambered out on the opposite bank as soon as he could.

"You're wet." Ziva said plucking at his shirt with her fingers, she smirked at him. He grinned back and took her hand and pulled her off away from the river. They were utterly unarmed and had little to no equipment on them, when things go wrong, they go wrong badly. "I miss my gun." Ziva mumbled as they stumbled upon a road and Nick took to flagging down a car. A young woman glanced at them as she pulled over.

"We fell in to the river; can you give us a ride in to town?" Nick asked the woman who blinked at him.

"Pode você conduzir-nos à cidade?" Ziva said stepping towards the car. "Nós caímos no rio."

"Eu supor assim, começ dentro." The woman responded, leaning over and opening her car door. She slipped in and thanked the woman while Nick climbed in to the back of the car. The woman and Ziva talked the whole way to the nearest town, Nick had no idea what they were saying he was only fluent in Spanish, French, Hebrew and Arabic. He was vaguely aware they were talking Portuguese and was pretty sure Ziva mentioned him as they both smiled at him before chuckling. The woman dropped them off at a train station and Ziva thanked her profusely.

"Come on, we are getting a train." Ziva said tugging on Nick's shirt.

"I'm wet, and cold Zee, can't we get a hotel and clean clothes instead?" He whined. They often did this, one would take 'charge' and the other would moan and complain until they swapped roles. They could rely on the other while knowing that if it came down to it they could each look after themselves. Ziva shook her head and walked over to a counter and pulled out a credit card and handed it to the man. When they had bought their tickets Nick and Ziva sat down to wait for the train to arrive at the platform.

"Where did you get that card from, we didn't have anything on us."

"It belongs to the woman who gave us the lift." Ziva stated and smiled. She placed the card under the seat as if it had been dropped there. Nick chuckled.

"What were you two chatting about this entire way here?"

"Why we were so wet, and had no things. I told her that you tried to persuade me to go skinny dipping." Nick chuckled but it quickly turned in to a shiver.

"How are you cold in Brazil?" She queried humorously. He shrugged his shoulders and sat closer to her she responded by hitting him in the arm and glaring at him. They had a relationship much like she had with Tony, the banter and the playful teasing, except they were a lot more touchy feely than she had been with Tony. She guessed it was due to the fact she hadn't ever slept with Tony but early on in their mission they had both been so frustrated with each other and so drunk that they ended up in the same bed. Limbs wrapping around each other and hot kisses everywhere.

It was a long wait and an even longer train journey. Nick wasn't entirely sure where they had been going until they got off. They were now in another train station, but it was bustling. It didn't take much to figure out they were now in the largest city, Sao Paulo. They quickly disappeared in to the crowds, they separated when they got off the train. Ziva turned left on the platform knowing that in such a large train station there would be multiple exits. She knew that Nick would take another exit to her, it was a useful skill they had learnt. Ziva made her way out of the train station, having exerted her skills as a pickpocket gaining her a few credit cards and several hundred Reais, the Brazilian currency.

"Hey Zee, what's you're load?" Nick asked from behind her as she hovered near the kerb on a relatively quiet area outside the train station.

"Few hundred Reais and a few cards, you?" She asked as he showed her his loot.

"Mobile phone for you, and for me, just in case I lose yah. Plus some cash a decent amount I think." He rifled through the money before stuffing it back in his pockets along with the cash Ziva gave him. She pocketed the cards and one of the phones, after finding the numbers and swapping it with Nick. They walked out and grabbed the first taxi they could. "Aeroporto." Nick said to the man who sped off immediately.

* * *

Tony threw a wad of paper across the bullpen and it landed squarely in the new Agent's face. She swiped at it impatiently and continued to type away at her work. Special Agent Lucy Carson was an utter annoyance in Tony's eyes. She was overly eager, was way too good at investigating and had claimed Ziva's desk as her own. Tony threw another paper ball at her and she still didn't break her gaze from her PC. Even Abby disliked her, but that was mainly because Tim and Lucy had gotten close, much too close for Abby's liking and she had even brought her suspicions to Gibbs attention.

"Tony leave Carson alone." McGee snapped at him as he went to aim another paper ball at her. Tony turned to look at McGee who hadn't taken his eyes off his computer like Carson. Tony muttered something about them being two peas in a pod or something, whatever it was Tim heard it. "You didn't mind it when it was Ziva and she would stick up for you." He retorted and Tony stood up and left the room. Ziva was still a sore topic. They had heard that her mission in Somalia went wrong and she was captured, from there they had no idea. Eli David eventually told them she was alive, but she hadn't returned to Tel Aviv and she was working out of the country.

Following her rescue in Somalia by Nick Clarke he had flown with her to Louisiana his home town, and stayed with her while she recovered. He had words with his supervisor and pulled some strings both inside the CIA and inside Mossad. The result was that three short weeks after her return to America Nick literally busted her out of the hospital to take her to Canada; from there they followed a trail across to Serbia, through three more countries and ended up in Brazil. They took out the leaders and those capable of taking over the cell before scarpering. Eli David had actually not heard from his daughter since her last visit to Tel Aviv and was hoping he would see her soon enough.

Tony hit the button for the elevator and jumped in when it arrived, Agent Barton was humming to himself in the back, and he nodded at Tony who nodded back. Tony jumped out at Abby's floor while Barton stayed in the elevator. Tony shook his head slightly Barton seemed to be riding the elevator up and down for some reason, maybe waiting for a booty call he smirked as he crossed the threshold to Abby's lab. He was immediately attacked by Abby who wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Tooooony it's been ages since I last saw you, how are you?" Abby asked releasing her hold on him. He grinned and smirked at her.

"Good Abs, but tweedle Dee and tweedle Dum up stairs are getting to me, the company down here is better." He glanced at the place on the wall were Abby had collected a series of pictures of Ziva and pinned them up alongside a countdown of the days since her departure. Tony walked over to it, running his hand over a photo of Abby planting a kiss on Ziva's cheek at what Tony recognised to be Ziva's apartment. They both looked a little tipsy and he smiled. Abby appeared at his side and chuckled at the picture.

"She told me that her father sent her some wine over from Tel Aviv, she said he sent it as a gift and it was very expensive. She thought it would be appropriate to drink it over a DVD and pizza. I guess it's a testament to how she feels about her father. We ended up cracking open two more bottles and falling asleep on her couch." Abby chuckled at the memory and at waking up with her head resting on Ziva when they woke up the next day. They had giggled more and ended up both falling off the couch.

"I didn't know her father sent her things." Tony mumbled.

"I don't think he did, not that often anyway. It might have been around her birthday I can't remember now." Abby looked at the post-it notes on the wall, 97 days. She sighed and ran her finger over it. "97 days is a long time, we don't know where she is or if she's alive or if she's hurt. She could be anywhere." Abby sighed and Tony pulled her in to a hug. He kissed the top of her head before telling her he would be right back. He took the stairs back to the squad room and was in Abby's lab before she had processed his leaving.

"Got a photo to add to the collection." He said pulling a lump of blutack off the wall and pushing the photo on to it. Abby smiled at the image and chuckled shaking her head. It was a bikini clad Ziva, lounging in the LA sun. Tony stepped back and placed an arm around Abby's waist as she leaned on his shoulder admiring the shrine they had both created. Even though Abby seemed to have made it a mission to find every photo of Ziva and fill the wall with it. "It's not the same as the real thing, but at least we know she's alive. Plus we still have Gibbs, and you have me and I have you. We both got the two Probies if you want them."

"I miss her though, it's not like when Kate died, because she was just gone. Ziva left, without a word, we don't even know that we can call her. So it isn't even like Gibbs going to Mexico." Abby said softly. Tony squeezed her and kissed her cheek.

"We'll find her Abs, don't doubt it and she'll come home to us."

* * *

_So how bad was it? I have a question for you lot as to where I'm going to take this and I can not decide! Somebody gets shot near the end._

_Who do you think should **fire** the weapon that puts a bullet in said person? (Haha I don't even know who is going to get shot. But it will be a bad guy, maybe multiple bad guys!)_

_Gibbs_

_Ziva_

_Tony_

_Carson_

_I seriously don't know who should do it! I know it can't be Nick or McGee, because they are elsewhere (making out). Joking. Maybe._


	2. Chapter Two

_Chapter two for you! _

_P.S. I like Reviews, they make me smile and give me a warm glow inside. Seriously. I only realised how much I MISS posting when I put this story up. I really need to keep on top of everything. =] _

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**Chapter Two**

Ziva stretched out on the flight, they had managed to wangle first class tickets and now Ziva was contently lounging out in the dry clothes she had purchased, well Nick had purchased for her at the airport shops. He had picked out a pretty white sundress and Ziva had scowled but put it on anyway. She had told him that under no circumstances would she be jumping in to rivers wearing that, something he found amusing. Nick was wearing a pair of black jeans, which suited him perfectly something Ziva told him blatantly and a simple blue shirt.

They had booked plane tickets to take them to DC international airport. Ziva hadn't been to DC since she left NCIS, she wasn't concerned about seeing her old team. That wouldn't happen unless a terrorist blew up the airport and she ended up on ZNN… again. Or a marine had been shot at the gate to their flight. Maybe if Gibbs had managed to somehow track her down and-

"Ziva? Are you okay, you seem a bit anxious." Nick said putting his hand on hers.

"First time in DC since I quit NCIS, I was just being paranoid." He was well aware of her past at NCIS, she had told him everything because secrets didn't work in partnerships. He in turn had let her read his file as well as filling in any gaps and gave a brief history of his family life something she had smiled at, it was unnecessary but she appreciated the gesture.

"Ah, well unless somebody shot a marine in front of you I doubt you'll meet up with them today, we are going straight to headquarters and I'm thinking a vacation. It's been an interesting six weeks, to say the least. I need to let my organs catch up to me with all the crazy running around." Ziva chuckled as Nick whispered in her ear.

"A vacation though?" She chuckled, "You had one while waiting on me yes?" She asked and he shrugged.

"Actually, I was officially working. I managed to persuade the boss you were an asset and I offered to babysit." He shrugged, "my last vacation was in like 2003 I think back when I was still to afraid to bend the rules."

"Maybe you should have gotten a flight to Tahiti not DC." She chuckled and he smiled back shaking his head softly, he removed his hand from over hers and leaned back in his chair snuggling in to the seat. "How are we going to get a taxi from the airport to HQ? We no longer have money."

"True, and we don't get covered for crime on home soil… well I aren't." He said suggestively. "We'll put it on HQ's tab."

* * *

"We got a case DiNozzo where are you? Well get up here and grab your crap!" Gibbs yelled before slamming the phone shut, he was incredibly grouchy the past 98 days. It was early September now, and Ziva had left in late May the summer had been hell for his team and he knew it yet he didn't care. He placed his gun in his holster and his cell phone at his belt. He waited for Tony to come running in to the bullpen and slung his bag over his back, and grabbed his jacket. He followed Carson and McGee to the elevator. Gibbs already stood waiting.

Gibbs threw Tony the keys and grabbed Carson telling her to drive with him, McGee was left in the truck with Tony. Carson clambered in to Gibbs car, she always hated driving with her boss something McGee and Tony had told her was a breeze compared to driving with Ziva. She had visibly paled and it was obvious she was grateful for not having to drive with her ever. Gibbs sped out of the garage and Carson grasped the door handle, Gibbs tried not to smirk. It took most people a fair few years to grow used to his driving. Kate never had, Tony was almost there, and Tim probably would never be there neither will Carson. Jenny used to be able to tolerate his driving and Ziva had no qualms with it.

He thought it odd that the two women had long come to terms with it, yet it had taken Ducky years, Tony years and was likely to be even longer for Tim to be unaffected by it. He smiled softly before turning a corner sharply and Carson inhaled quickly and a quick glance told Gibbs she had closed her eyes tightly. He shook his head, Carson would never be used to his driving, ever. He pulled up to the scene at least ten minutes before Tony arrived. It gave Carson long enough to attempt at regaining her composure. Tony jumped out of the van almost happily and grinned at Carson. He yelled at her to get the bags and saw McGee helping her as he walked over to Gibbs.

"So she still isn't fairing well with you driving?" Tony asked smirking.

"I vaguely remember it took you a year to get used to my driving DiNozzo." Gibbs smirked before beckoning him to the crime scene. They ducked under the tape and walked in to a house two people were lying, very much dead inside. Ducky was already there and was walking around the scene examining the bodies, Palmer jabbering away next to him. Gibbs coughed and Ducky looked up.

"Ah Jethro, you're late so I can tell you before you ask that the preliminary COD I believe is the slitting of their throats. Mr Palmer, the times of death please?" Ducky said turning to his assistant who quickly replied with the answer. He was increasing in confidence since he joined NCIS. Jethro glanced around the room and Ducky began talking.

"A nice young woman outside told me that a Petty officer Janine Farrington and her husband Lewis Farrington." Ducky waved his arm over the bodies and Jethro nodded as McGee and Carson walked in t the room. Gibbs turned around and started barking out his usual orders.

"McGee, shoot and sketch, Carson bag and tag and DiNozzo go and interview the witnesses." Gibbs said and the team immediately sprung in to action. Within the hour the Farrington's were on their way back to NCIS headquarters and Gibbs, Tony, Tim and Lucy had met up in the middle of the yard. Gibbs told them to bag the stuff up and get back to HQ. He took of his in her car alone and Tony walked to the truck and climbed in leaving Carson and McGee to grab the boxes and put them in the back.

They thought this was going to be another one of those homicides, they catch the bad guy and go home. However both Tony and Gibbs had the awful feeling that this wasn't going to work out that way.

* * *

Ziva had slept the rest of the flight and Nick had to wake her when it came to getting off, she had sniped at him but let him undo her belt and tug her from her seat. She walked off the plane and the two walked past baggage claim out to the front doors. Nick pulled out the phone they had nicked and flipped it open, it didn't have a signal so he pulled out the second phone. He had a few bars so he dialled in a number from memory, it went straight through to his boss' cell.

"Hey Mike! Just checking in, back in DC on way to HQ now so…"

"Don't bother, go straight to NCIS the Farringdon's are dead and I need you to clean it up, and by you I mean you and David, she used to work with them right? She can persuade them to hand the case over." Nick chuckled and passed the phone to Ziva who took it and muttered a confused hello.

"David, you and Nick need to go over to NCIS and stop them investigating a case, murdered Navy wife and her husband who was a CIA informant. He gave us a lot of useful information and I can't have NCIS asking questions. We already have somebody taking over the scene we need somebody out there to-"

"No, I left them, they have no trust in me and won't hand over a case to the CIA regardless of what I say." She said immediately, cutting off Mike.

"Not a suggestion David, an order you and Nick NCIS now." He hung up and Ziva threw the phone away, Nick put an arm around her shoulders and walked off down the street with his arms around her still. When they got around the corner he hailed a taxi and told him to go to NCIS, Ziva glared at him but he shrugged at her. She was going to have to face them now, after the week she had had she was pissed off. She pulled her hair back off her face and loosely tied it on her head, a few loose curls fell around her face. She fiddled with the hem of her dress and glared at Nick.

"I'm wearing a dress, just got off a plane and have lost all my weapons and your making me walk in to NCIS? You know how much I hate you know right?" She asked and he nodded. "Good, can we not stop at your apartment?" He frowned but shook his head.

"Time is of the essence." He muttered to her.

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_Reeeeeally short I know. But I'll make it up to you and post the next chapter tomorrow! Pwomise. *Scouts honour* And yeah, I wasn't a scout but I was a brownie... which doesn't have the same ring. They wouldn't let me join scouts sexist *&£%$*£._

_I like Reviews, hint hint. _

_Okie, gotta go do some revision now, got exams on Wednesday and Thursday. Scary times._


	3. Chapter Three

_Thanks for the reviews! They make me happy. . I really should be revising right now... but I had to make sure I did this before I forgot! I'll update again the day after tomorrow I think._

_Enjoy. xx_

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**Chapter Three**

Gibbs walked in to the squad room and realised his desk phone was ringing; he took a few sharp steps and picked it up.

"Gibbs" came the automatic response.

"Agent Gibbs, somebody from the CIA just took over the house, the crime scene I mean. They said that it's their case now and I don't know what to do." Gibbs blinked, CIA? He was used to the FBI getting involved but CIA don't operate on American soil it was the problem he had with Trent Kort and his annoying ability to turn up at the worst times.

"Tell them it's our case and to get out of there. Shoot them if you have to Walker!" Gibbs said before slamming his phone down. He turned to Tony who was watching him.

"McGee and Carson are down with Abby… who was that?"

"Central Intelligence Agency, trying to take our case." Gibbs said.

"Not trying Agent Gibbs, trying suggests a chance of failure and failure isn't in the CIA handbook." Nick said as he appeared behind Tony. Ziva was stood to his side, standing unnaturally close to him and feeling incredibly stupid for being here. Tony and Gibbs whipped around to face them. "I'd give you ID but …" Nick glanced at Ziva who rolled her eyes.

"We lost them in Brazil." She finished for him. He nodded and turned to Gibbs.

"Agent Nick Clarke, and I'm guessing by the look on his face you know who my partner is." Nick held out his hand but Gibbs never shook it. "Friendly, so what say we make this really awkward meeting shorter and you hand over the case." Tony seemed to snap back in to himself, Ziva was avoiding eye contact with him anyways.

"No, it's a Navy petty officer which makes it our case, CIA doesn't operate on home soil anyways." Tony said he still hadn't taken his eyes off Ziva. Ziva shuffled her weight between her feet and Nick got the message, he whistled and Tony looked at him funny.

"Now you've taken your eyes off my partner can we talk about this?" Nick said and Tony glared at him. "Don't take it personally, but when I'm talking to somebody I appreciate eye contact. Not gawping at a dress I picked out at a Brazilian airport shop a few hours ago. Even if it is an awesome dress." Nick said and Tony looked like he was going to punch him. Ziva placed her hand in Nick's and dragged him off, towards the window and started talking to him in Arabic.

"Nick, that isn't helping." Ziva chastised him.

"I was lightening the atmosphere. He seemed like a women are toys kind of guy." Ziva smiled and he nodded. "See I was right, obviously he isn't like that when it comes to you. Did you sleep with him?"

"No, but we … we were close, Tony was the one who shot Michael remember?" Nick shook his head for a second before he did remember and he nodded and then shook his head again.

"Damn Zee, I forgot, OK no more crude remarks about you. Although I'm wishing I did go back to mine for a gun or two." He said and Ziva smiled again.

"Let me talk to them. There is a vending machine over there, if you hit it in the right place its free." She smirked recalling Tony's vending machine 'gift'. "At the top… somewhere." He rolled his eyes but walked off anyway. Ziva walked over to Tony and Gibbs who were also conversing, they stopped when she approached.

"Last time we heard you were in Somali, captured." Gibbs said and Ziva nodded.

"I was,' she twisted her arm over to show a long scar on her forearm that ran pretty much all the way up her arm. "Nick got me out, brought me here and signed me up to the CIA, at least I think he did."

"You could have called and told us you were alive!" Gibbs yelled.

"My Father told you." She stated as if it was obvious. "Nick told the CIA who told Mossad who told Vance who passed it on to you."

"What makes you think that?" Gibbs said.

"One, that little chain works both ways; Vance was demanding information from my father who in turn was demanding it off the CIA, who told Nick who told me. Or they told me and I told Nick. Two, you seemed angrier at my arrival then relieved which means you are aware I was alive. Can we have our case now please?"

"I have way more questions for you David." Gibbs said and Ziva saw McGee and a young woman over Gibbs shoulder stop.

"Ziva?" McGee said and she nodded, Tim ran forwards and hugged her, she winced slightly and he pulled back, worry in his eyes. "You're hurt, where are you hurt?" He asked and she smiled and placed a hand against his cheek.

"Not hurt, Tim, just a bit sore. I am working for the CIA, now." McGee stepped back immediately and she raised her eyebrows relatively amused. She guessed CIA meant she was diseased or something, she tried to suppress a smile and leaned against the partition near her old desk. She glanced down at it and then at the woman hovering near Gibbs.

"Hey there, I'm Ziva David, and you?" She asked of the woman. She took a shaky step forward as Ziva held out her hand. The woman took it and Ziva smiled warmly.

"I'm Lucy Carson, I guess I'm your replacement. It's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you." Ziva raised an eyebrow.

"Let me guess, Ziva David traitor to NCIS and America?" The woman shook her head.

"No, it's obvious they miss you because they…"

"Carson scram." DiNozzo said and Carson ducked out of the way and McGee took her arm and dragged her off to the elevator at the back. Ziva looked to her right to see Nick leaning against a wall and mouthing at her and gesticulating wildly. She raised an eyebrow at him and then nodded. He vanished again.

"Look, they sent me here on purpose to piss you guys off and it's obviously worked. I don't know what you think of me right now and so if you want to shoot me or something then go ahead, I'm not even armed right now, not even a knife." She stood forwards and opened her arms out and glared at them both. Gibbs glared back but Tony's eyes softened as he looked at her. He did something she totally did not expect. He hugged her.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. She froze for a second and wasn't sure how to react, she caught Gibbs blinking at Tony. He was obviously as confused by the behaviour as she was. She eventually relaxed a bit and wrapped her arms around his neck as he let his head drop in to her neck. He took in several deep breaths and whispered in her ear that he missed her like crazy and he shouldn't have let her go. She didn't really know what to say so she pulled back from him. She held him at arms length and was about to open her mouth to speak when she heard an almighty squeal.

"Ziva!" Abby yelled as she came peeling around the corner, Tony leapt out the way as Abby practically jumped on the Mossad slash CIA assassin. She wrapped her arms around Ziva who winced a lot more this time than with McGee's hug.

"Abby, your hurting me." Ziva said and Abby let go and apologised and grinned at her.

"Sorry my hugs get a little over enthusiastic and you would have remembered that if you'd been here the last 98 days!" She chastised her and Ziva swallowed heavily and dropped eye contact. This was the reason she didn't want to be here. She regretted her decision to return to Israel the second she called Gibbs name out on the tarmac. It had grown watching the plane leave, it was the last chance of freedom she thought she would ever have.

"It is not that, got a little shot up in Canada." She shrugged and Abby's eyes went wide and started shooting questions at her a mile a minute. Gibbs frowned at her and Tony pulled Abby back from Ziva. Tony covered Abby's mouth and Gibbs stepped forward.

"What do you mean shot up?" He asked genuinely worried, Ziva however was getting more irritated, she wanted to go to bed with a gun and sleep until she was sent off again to Australia or somewhere.

"Look, I came here for your case, not to discuss what may or may not have happened in the past fourteen weeks since I last saw you. It would take a long time to explain it and I don't have a long time. I haven't slept in or in fact seen a bed in two weeks and I haven't slept for more than an hour in the past forty hours. I really want to go to bed and I can't do that arguing with you here and now." She yelled and Gibbs raised his eyebrows at her.

"I'll have Vance contact your superiors and we'll let them work this out shall we?" Ziva looked incredibly relieved and let her shoulders droop. They could see she looked genuinely tired and Abby went to go and hug her again. Ziva let the Goth hug her gently before she broke away. "I'm sorry for leaving, really I am." She said before walking to the elevator. She pushed the button to call the cart and glanced around. "Nick?" She snapped and he ran across the squad room apologising to Gibbs and Abby as he did so. He ran over to Ziva and Tony heard him answering her call in a mocking tone.

"Yes M'lady!" He said as he reached her, she glared at him. "Oh yeah right no lady jokes, no Ma'am jokes, no sir jokes, no trying to ask for information on your fam-" Ziva placed a hand over his mouth as he continued to list the things she had told him off for doing in the past few months.

"Nick, either shut up or I'll shut you up. Permanently."

"No listing the rules of our partnership aloud?" He questioned and she nodded before stepping in to the elevator. "I'm knackered, how are you still standing, at least I slept on the train." He mumbled and she chuckled.

Abby was still standing with Tony's arms wrapped around her. McGee and Carson were hovering in the background and Gibbs was watching the elevator doors shut. The second they did he walked steadily and slowly up the stairs to Vance's office. Tony let go of Abby when Gibbs passed him and she stepped away from him only to turn around and hug him tightly.

"She said shot up." Abby whimpered. "She's changed Tony." Tony rubbed his hand up and down her back and kissed the side of her head out of habit. In the past few three and a half months he and Abby had grown close, a lot closer than they had been before. McGee took a step forward and was going to try to help comfort Abby but when he saw Tony pecking her head lightly he froze. He loved Abby, he really did but he hadn't realised how close her and Tony had gotten.

"Abby, look at me, she's alive we know that now right?" Tony said and she pulled back from the hug and nodded at him. "Come on, I'll take you back to your lab." He said and she nodded and walked off. Tony patted McGee on the shoulder as he passed by but the younger man barely noticed. He was wondering when he lost his best friend to Tony, and why.

"Tim?" Carson asked from her desk, she frowned up at him and he blinked at her. "Are you alright, you haven't moved in like five minutes." He shook his head and looked at her, really looked at her. Her light red hair was cut short, Tony had dubbed her a strawberry blonde it was that light. She was slight build but she worked out a lot and was probably stronger than Tony or Tim, something they had never tried to test out. She wore make-up, although it was often subtle much like Ziva's had been. She was tall, yet still the shortest on the team.

"I'm fine Lucy." He said automatically and turned to sit down, and then it hit him, really hit him. He had been neglecting Abby for Lucy, for Agent Carson. He mentally slapped himself and collapsed in to his chair. He didn't remember when it happened but he was vaguely aware that he and Abby had stopped going out for drinks once or twice a week and to a movie on a Sunday night. He vaguely wondered if she was going to cinema with Tony now and he glanced at Tony's desk and sighed. He supposed that since Ziva had left Tony had lost his best friend, and he had gone out of his way to make Carson feel at home amongst them.

"I'm going to see Abby." He announced and stood up. He headed to the back elevator and hit the button. He climbed in and rode the elevator down to Abby's lab. He stepped out and saw Tony waiting for the elevator back up to the squad room. "Hey Tony."

"Something wrong McGee? Why are you down here?" He asked as they swapped places, McGee getting out of the elevator and Tony getting in.

"Nope, wanted a quick word with Abby." He said and Tony nodded and hit the button for the squad room. Tim turned and walked back in to the squad room to see Abby wandering around putting things in jars and adding a mix of chemicals to them. He coughed and she glanced up at him and smiled.

"Hey McGee, what can I do you for?" She said, he could tell she was trying to hide her sadness and his eyes fell to the wall behind her. It was still covered in pictures of Ziva.

"I'm sorry, Abby." He said and she frowned at him, obviously confused. She placed her glass far and pipette on to the desk and walked towards him. He sighed and looked up at her from the floor. "I neglected you when you needed me, and I've only just realised how much I screwed up our friendship. You go to Tony for comfort, and it used to be me. I practically ignored you these past few months."

"Hey, its ok I understand you have Lucy to deal with." Abby snapped she was actually mad at him for ignoring her, more for apologising for doing so. People have different ways to deal with these things.

"Abby, that's just it, I know Tony lost his best friend and I ignored mine for a new agent. I was an idiot but can't we try to rectify this?" He waved his hands between him and her. She snapped off her plastic gloves and threw them in her trash can. He watched her actions with caution, and was relatively surprised when she threw her arms around him tightly.

"I missed you too Timmy and I'm not mad. I just miss Ziva loads and so does Tony, he didn't want to go to you about his emotions and stuff so he came to me because I was really sad too. We talked a lot, and you ended up lumbered with Carson and it's not your fault because you were being who you are, you were being nice. You were being what I love you for Timmy." Abby squeezed him again before letting go of him. She smiled at him and he grinned back. "We should all go out for drinks… but not until we know what is going on with this case." She said happily, glad she had her best friend back.

"Need any help with this stuff?" Tim asked waving his hand around. Abby pointed to a laptop and Tim pulled on a pair of gloves and examined it carefully. Abby watching out of the corner of her eye, she smiled before pulling on some gloves herself and digging back in to her evidence.

* * *

_Okay, I see that this was the random chpater that made no sense to me. I kind of got a bit side tracked and rambled on about McGee and Abby... I was just trying to show how much everything changed after Ziva left and how it altered the team dynamic. _

_Anyway, that was my random chapter!_

_Review? xx_


	4. Chapter Four

_Welcome to installment numero quatro. Some Zick loving below. (That's Ziva and Nick btw, I just wanted to give them a name... Niva or Zick? Lol you chose!)_

_So I'm going to tell you something you didn't know, because I feel like it. I don't own NCIS. I own the CIA sheesh, way better! So watch out I have many trained killers at my fingertips!_

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**Chapter Four**

When they arrived at Nick's apartment Ziva walked straight through and locked herself in his bathroom stepping in to his shower quickly. He had to run inside to grab money to pay for the agitated Taxi driver waiting outside. When he got back in side his apartment he locked his door and headed over to his bathroom to discover Ziva was still in there he shook his head and wandered in to his kitchen pulling out a glass and getting a drink of water. His fridge was empty; it was always empty unless he knew he would be in DC for longer than a week.

When Ziva stepped out the shower she walked in to his bedroom and started rummaging through his clothing. She found a pair of her pants in one of his drawers; she had dumped a load of clothes in his apartment a few weeks ago. She got dressed quickly and climbed in to his bed, while Nick had run for his shower. When he walked in to his room a few minutes later he chuckled.

"Comfortable Ziva?" He asked of her. She smiled and nodded, patting the bed next to her. He rolled his eyes but collapsed next to her and almost instantly fell asleep. Both slept through until Nick's alarm clock sounded early the next morning, he groaned and turned it off. Rolling over and trying to go back to sleep, he came face to face with Ziva who had her eyes closed still. He grinned at her and was about to start flicking her hair around when she spoke to him.

"Try it and die Nick." He chuckled as she rolled on to her back and sighed heavily. "What time is it?" she asked of her partner.

"0630, you slept in David." He mocked she always woke up before him without fail. It was normally about 0500 when she rolled out of bed. He would wake up anywhere between 0600 and 0700, although it was getting to be earlier with his new partner. Her early morning habits rubbing off on him.

"Mike called yet?" She asked as she slowly sat up and threw the covers off her body. Nick shook his head at her and she nodded. "So, does this mean we get the day off? Or does he expect us to go back to NCIS?" Nick shrugged and fell back against the pillows on his bed as Ziva pottered around in his bathroom. By 0700 Nick eventually rolled out of bed and wandered towards his kitchen, he opened his fridge forgetting it was empty and sighed. He heard Ziva chuckle as she picked up his car keys.

"I'll go and get breakfast shall I?" She asked and he nodded enthusiastically. She had slipped on a pair of combat trousers and a black cami top. She walked out of his apartment and down a series of steps until she came to the front of the building. She unlocked his car and drove off. When she got back Nick was hovering at the entrance to his apartment for her. She slowed the car down and he got in.

"CIA called, got to go down there and be yelled at for losing our badges and guns. Oh and fill in some paperwork. What did yah buy, ooh donuts?" He munched happily on the gooey food and Ziva shook her head as she drove off to the CIA headquarters. It was almost ten o clock until they finally collapsed in to their shared office. Ziva slammed the paperwork down at her desk and Nick chuckled at her. He pulled his first sheet off the top of the pile and scanned it.

"I swear we didn't produce this much damage, in Canada. There are pages of things here!" Nick scoffed. Ziva smirked; his pile was certainly larger than her own. Mainly because he had a tendency to cause a lot more damage than she did and because the damage she did cause was normally people dying. "I need a P.A." he mumbled as he began filling in boxes and typing up reports. "Doesn't help that we just had a two hour lecture on responsibility!" He mumbled again.

* * *

Gibbs woke up to his cell phone buzzing, it was 0600, nobody was at the office and they had a case. He flipped the phone open and answered it while getting out of bed. He had spoken to Vance yesterday and tried to persuade him to let them keep the case, Vance hadn't seemed to enthusiastic about fighting with the CIA over a dead body. He had however promised to come to some form of agreement. Vance had later told him that he would be working with the CIA on this case, Gibbs had glared and sulked but Vance was firm. Work with or lose the case.

"Gibbs."

"Need you to go to CIA headquarters to meet with a Michael Smith. He's going to read you in on what he can on the Farrington case. No need to take your team." Vance said before flipping his phone shut. Gibbs groaned and got showered and dressed and was out of his house by 0630. It took him longer to get to the CIA then it did to get to NCIS so he arrived by 0700. He was met at the front desk by a man in a sharp suit.

"Agent Gibbs?" Gibbs nodded and shook the man's hand. "Michael Smith, come through to my office." Gibbs followed the man to an elevator and then to his office. It was at the end of a long corridor with several offices off it. Gibbs could see people working in the rooms and yet some were pitch black inside. "Most of them are out of town, I doubt this corridor has ever been full." He said realising Gibbs was examining the offices. He held open his office door at the end.

"They work for you?" Gibbs asked taking in the plush interior of the office and realised he was here a lot. Probably more than the other officers were in the other offices down the corridor.

"Not work for, I'm their superior. They report to me and I keep track of them. This is a lot more difficult than it sounds." He chuckled sitting down on the other side of the desk. "Now, the Farrington case, I believe that your director has had some words and managed to wangle a joint investigation?" It was a question that required no answer; it was obvious that Agent Smith was more than aware of the situation.

"He said you needed to read me in on something."

"Yes, you're going to be working with two of our agents on this, Agent David and Clarke. You've met them both already, and they should be on their way here. Although they will be needing to collect new ID badges. This will be the seventh set Nick has had since he started here." Smith shook his head and looked at Gibbs.

"Now we appreciate that you have jurisdiction over Janine Farrington as she was a naval officer. However, Lewis Farrington was actually an … informant to the CIA. He proved the information that caused us to send David and Clarke to Serbia a few weeks ago."

"Lewis Farrington worked for a pharmaceutical company in DC, how is he and informant?" Gibbs demanded.

"Correct he worked in pharmaceuticals; it wasn't the type of company that sold morphine to the nearest hospital. Farrington got in deep and his wife put him in touch with a friend she has here. He's been working from the inside to bring down the company."

"Why CIA, not FBI?"

"It's an outside company, the owner is Serbian, and most of the trade happens outside of American soil. It would have fallen in to our jurisdiction anyway, except now Farrington is dead." Smith finished.

"You think he was caught out."

"Unsure,' Smith shrugged, 'he had some information, very important information, on a USB drive. We know for a fact you didn't recover it from the house."

"So its missing, what was on the drive?" Gibbs asked.

"Need to know." Smith said and Gibbs glared. "CIA needs to know, but they don't. We think it's the location of a terrorist group going to buy some of Nasri's pharmaceuticals less pharmaceutical drugs." Smith said and Gibbs nodded.

"What information have you got on this?" Gibbs asked and Smith supplied Gibbs with a few files that the man began flicking through instantly. "Where are David and Clarke? They coming here or going straight to NCIS?" He asked.

"Err; they aren't aware that they will be working on this with you yet. Fisher is going to call up when he's let them go."

"Fisher?" Gibbs queried.

"Lecturing them on losing their badges probably, he was meant to hand over the badges and let them go but knowing Fisher they'll be there for three hours." Smith told him. "If you want to head over to NCIS I can send them over when they show up."

"Nah, I'll hang around." Gibbs said. He leaned back in the chair and continued poring over the files in his hand. After about half an hour Smith's phone rang. He grumbled a few times and was silent for a few minutes before muttering 'thanks Fish' and hanging up the phone. Shortly after a resounding thud came from the corridor outside the office. Smith stood up and indicated for Gibbs to do similar.

"David and Clarke are back, I'm guessing one of them is unhappy with the amount of paperwork they have to do. Lets see if they appreciate what I'm going to go and tell them shall we?"

* * *

Ziva glared at Nick again. He was humming loudly, on purpose. She threw a wad of paper at his head and he lobbed it back at her. A knock at the door stopped Ziva from throwing her stapler at Nick she placed the device back on the table as the door opened and Mike Smith walked in. Ziva caught sight of Gibbs over his shoulder and narrowed her eyes at him. Mike glanced between the suspicious look on Ziva's face and the hopeful one on Nicks and bit back a smirk.

"You'll be working with NCIS on the Farrington case."

"Why us, we only just got back and are kind of over loaded with paperwork." Ziva said before Mike had a chance to even close his mouth following his orders.

"You worked the information Farrington gave us, Clarke's been on this job for a year now. Minus his detour." Mike said referring to Nick's rescue of Ziva. It had been spare of the moment when he had been in Somalia after tracking down a different terrorist cell. He spent a month with her, in Somalia and then in Louisiana until she became his partner.

"Sure, find the info kill the bad guys blow up the terrorist home base." Nick said standing up and grabbing his gear. Mike rolled his eyes at him. He wouldn't normally correct him but he felt to, given current company.

"No Nick, you have to arrest the bad guy and return the USB drive to base. I'll tell you where you're going then." He said before walking off. Nick nodded at Gibbs who was hovering in the doorway.

"Looks like we get to work together Agent Gibbs." He said. Gibbs only glared at him.

"You realise Nick at this rate we'll have to retire in a few months just to take care of all the paperwork?" Ziva muttered as she walked past him out of their door.

"Good isn't it? What my grandfather used to say, why put off until tomorrow when you can avoid doing it altogether?"

"You are too happy about this." She decided as they all got in to the elevator.

"What's not to be happy about? I hate that office, it's so small and bullets ricochet off the walls like you wouldn't believe." He said. Gibbs was stood at the front of the elevator, Ziva at the back and Nick was leaning against the wall glancing between the two of them. "I haven't been in the field in America in years. I've missed it." He sighed.

"Don't get shot will you?" Ziva asked as the elevator doors opened. Nick chuckled and promised her he wouldn't. When they got outside to the parking lot Gibbs turned to the two agents and they stopped and fell silent from their bickering.

"David ride with me, you know the way to the navy yard right Clarke is it?" Gibbs said.

"Yes sir I sure do. Don't go murdering her though, I like this partner." Nick said carefully extracting his car keys from Ziva's hand as she still had them from that morning. He smiled at her and walked over to his car and pulled out of the car park. Ziva was still standing near Gibbs' car not really wanting to get in. Gibbs glared at her before getting in himself and turning the engine on. She took a deep breath and got in to the passenger seat. Gibbs tore out of the car park and was pleasantly surprised that she didn't react in any way. In was another few minutes before he spoke.

"Fourteen weeks, and you were working for the CIA?" Gibbs asked his tone light.

"No, only seven weeks, the day after your departure from Tel Aviv I flew out to Somalia. One week later my cover got blown and I spent the next twenty five days having the crap beat out of me."

"You could have called." Gibbs said, reiterating the phrase she had said to Tony only a year ago.

"Yes, I could have when I was in the hospital in Louisiana, but I didn't want to … I couldn't … I didn't…"

"Want us to see or hear from you while you were in hospital?" He said and she hung her head and sighed, muttering a quiet yes. "Ziva, you literally got me my memory back when I was in hospital. You saw me at my worst so I wouldn't have thought any less of you."

"I was going to go back to DC to see you all when I was released from hospital." She said half heartedly as Gibbs stopped at a set of traffic lights.

"Why didn't you?" Gibbs looked at her and she smiled softly.

"I was never discharged, Nick came one night and we climbed out of the window and got on a flight to Canada by morning. Mike had to cover for me, for us."

"What, you should have stayed in the hospital if you …"

"My wounds were superficial; it was mainly my ego that was bruised for being caught." She replied smiling at him. "Just bruises and cuts." She smiled.

"Your arm isn't superficial."

"No, well that happened in my first week in the cell, it was practically healed when I got to Louisiana." Gibbs grunted and pulled in to the parking lot outside of NCIS and climbed out. It was almost half ten now and his team would no doubt be questioning his lateness. Gibbs walked with Ziva in to the building; she was fiddling on her phone as they waited for the elevator.

"Got another secret partner somewhere?" Gibbs asked as she put her phone in her pocket. She shook her head and followed him in to the elevator.

"Told Nick we are here and to go up to the squad room upon his arrival." Gibbs nodded and pushed the button for the squad room. The elevator ride was silent and Gibbs got off first walking out confidently he took a moment to realise Ziva was no longer falling in to step next to him. She was now half a foot behind him, typing out a text on her phone; she frowned and snapped the phone shut. "Something wrong David?"

"Nothing, where do you want me?" She asked as they reached the squad room. Tony and Tim were watching her while Agent Carson was too engrossed in her work. Gibbs pointed to the desk near McGee, behind the partition and Ziva walked over to it and sat down booting the computer up quickly and being met by a folder on her desk courtesy of Gibbs. She thanked him before burying her head in it. She had read through the entire case by the time Nick arrived, he apologised to Gibbs and provided him with his favourite coffee, as well as Tony, Tim and Lucy's favourite coffee's. He took a seat on Ziva's desk.

"Fill me in?" He whispered to her. She glowered at him and he got off the desk and sat down on a neighbouring one. "Sorry, there was traffic… and I wanted to put you through hell. I'm just that kind of guy!"

"I knew that already, fill yourself in." She said handing over the file, he groaned and snatched the file from her playfully and began reading through it. Gibbs called Ziva over to him after Nick took the file; she went and hovered over his desk. "Yes?"

"Come with me; want to go see what Abby has for me." Ziva nodded and walked out of the room beside Gibbs. Tony watched them leaving a jealous expression on his face. Nick smirked at this and despite knowing Ziva would probably shoot him or something later for doing so he poked his head around the partition.

"What's with those two, were they an item back when Ziva was here?" He asked Tim and Tony looked at him horrified. Lucy Carson intrigued lifted her head from her work.

"No!" Tony almost yelled. "Gibbs is like her father, Gibbs and Ziva wouldn't…"

"Didn't he leave her in Israel, to subsequently get beaten up and practically bleed to death only to be rescued by a young dashing CIA agent who was on the verge of screwing up his own mission?"

"Yes, no, she chose to stay in Israel."

"Not what the report said, report said Gibbs made a choice and it was to leave her behind. Guess somebody made a typo!" He said disappearing behind the partition again. Tony glared at the wall where Nick was humming quietly. He gripped his pen tightly in his hand before letting it drop sharply on to his desk. Tony really hated that guy, more than he hated Trent Kort. He hated all CIA agents on principle, same with FBI agents.

* * *

_So that was chapter four. You'll get another update sometime tomorrow, I FINALLY did the last chapter._

_Plus no more exams. Finals are OVER officially. Plus plus I'm going on holiday in six days so as there are six more chapters of this that's a chapter a day! Lucky you. =]_

_Plus plus plus I'm going to write the SEQUEL while I'm away. Lucky you again. I have some ideas. If you want to see anything particular in the sequel (get hit by an idea over the next chapters) send me a PM or leave it in a review I read them all. We all know Reviews for FFNers are like Crack for druggies. So ply me with crack please?_

_No more plusses... but I am going to finish the sequel to my OTHER story and so that should be up soon. (Sequel to Where you go or wherever you are or something... I nicked the title off a song... which I can't remember now.)_

_Review? xXx_


	5. Chapter Five

_Chapter five comes complete with last nights hangover! Chapter seven will probably come complete with Saturdays hangover! Whoever said teenagers drink a lot? =] But we love it._

_I got a free shot in some bar for doing karaoke! It was mega funny because my friend FORCED me in to it, but her mike wasn't working so it was just me singing... how awkward._

_Anyway, I don't own this._

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**Chapter Five**

The case progressed slowly over the next few days, Ziva fit straight back in to the team's dynamic, minus the fact she was a lot more professional with the team. Even though Tony had over heard Abby and Ziva laughing in Abby's lab one day, he didn't stick around to figure out the joke though. Ziva entered the building every day with Nick, the two always laughing and joking and every night she would leave with him. They arrived in the same car, and Nick had no problems with her driving. They worked together seamlessly and she seemed to trust him implicitly. The thing that bothered him the most was that Nick seemed to be all too aware of Ziva's weaknesses, and that she seemed fine with him knowing. She had never trusted the NCIS team to know her so well.

Tony stared at the two as they exited the elevator, he felt a pang of jealousy when he realised that Nick had his arm around Ziva's shoulders and he was whispering in her ear. She frowned and then hit him square in the chest. He took a step backwards and she walked out of his grasp. Ziva nodded her head at Tony when she walked passed and with McGee when she passed him. Gibbs was not in the office and Carson wouldn't have noticed even if she shouted at her. Nick caught up with her a few moments later when she was seated at her desk.

"You hit hard." He whined and she smirked.

"I can hit harder Nicholas." She said using his full name, and leaning towards him. He turned away from her and sat down at his own desk.

"Nah I'm staying away from you David, I want _my_ ribs to stay in one piece." He said emphasising the 'my'.

"Whose ribs are not in one piece?" She asked before glancing at him. He pointed at her and she scoffed. "My ribs weren't broken."

"Yes they were, you had two fractured ribs and…"

"Whatever Nick, small fractures, I didn't even know they were there so it was not major."

"You wouldn't notice if somebody chopped off your foot. You'd just kick them twice as hard with your remaining one." He muttered and she chuckled at him.

"Got a lead!" McGee yelled jumping up from his chair. "Got to go and check with Abby and cross reference the numbers against the numbers on the…" his voice trailed off as he ran off to the elevator talking to himself as he went. Ziva shook her head at him and picked up her phone.

Less than ten minutes later Gibbs was hovering behind Abby and McGee in her lab, awaiting the results that he wouldn't understand but he would just accept and run with. Abby and McGee were doing a running commentary on how they had two lists of numbers and addresses but they had yet to find a match between them. McGee had found both sets, one he had stumbled across on his search of the laptop recovered from the Farrington's apartment and the other set was the phone records for an Emir Aboud. He was busy trying to compare the two lists to find if any of the numbers were the same.

It didn't take long for him to get a hit off the results. When he did he quickly printed off the address and passed it to Gibbs. Gibbs glanced at it and then led McGee out of the lab and back up to the squad room. He walked in to the middle of the room and told his team to gear up. Ziva and Nick stood instantly, they didn't have bags anymore, and they carried all of their weapons on their person. Gibbs shook his head at them and scribbled down a copy of the address on a separate sheet of paper.

"You wait for all of us to be there, David and take Carson with you." He said handing the paper over to her. She nodded and took the sheet and walked over to the elevator. Carson looked at Gibbs as they followed Nick and Ziva to the elevator.

"Is Agent David going to be driving?" Carson whispered to her boss, who shrugged. Nick had heard the probie's comment and smirked.

"Hey Zee, want to drive?" He asked of his partner. She merely held out her hand and he threw the keys to her. She caught them and turned around to Carson smiling at her. Carson gulped visibly and seemed very reluctant to get in to the elevator with Nick, Ziva and her boss. Three people she had become intensely wary of. Tim smiled at Carson while Tony leaned forwards and whispered to her that she would be wishing that she was driving in the same car as Gibbs when she arrived at the scene.

Indeed she was. Gibbs and Ziva left the navy yard at the same time but Ziva still managed to beat him to the location by ten minutes. She even parked the car down the street out of sight of the warehouse and they walked the rest of the way. When Gibbs arrived both Ziva and Nick seemed anxious to get in and start shooting people. They both had their guns in their hands making Carson look nervous. McGee reached in to the back of the car as he clambered out and grabbed the Kevlar vest he had put there. Gibbs, Tony and Carson each took one, McGee already had his on. He offered them to Ziva and Nick but they simply raised their shirts a bit to reveal their own high quality vests.

"We're like a ready meal, no hassle or preparations pop us in the microwave and we are good to go!" Nick said Ziva frowned at him utterly confused with what he said while the NCIS team just stared at him for a few seconds. Ziva and Nick took the offered ear pieces and fixed wires on to their clothing so that they could stay in touch with each other. Gibbs separated the group in to teams, he sent McGee with Ziva, Tony with Carson and he took Nick with himself. They separated along the building and each took an entrance.

Gibbs gave the order to go in and Ziva, Tony and Gibbs each kicked a door in. and the six Agents ran in to the building. Ziva and Nick both got off several shots before they even made it past the threshold. They worked their way through the building, annoying for the NCIS team Ziva and Nick seemed to be having some form of competition.

"Five, Zeevah." Nick chuckled as he sent another man to the floor with a double tap to the heart.

"I'm on seven Nick, keep up." She replied before heading off in another direction. The point of the mission was clear, find the USB before NCIS. She kicked a door in and was met by two terrorist inside. The one on the inside of the door kicked her gun out of her hand and punched her in the face. She took a step backwards and pulled out her knife and threw it at the guy by the door as a shot went past her ear. She dove out of the way and pulled her spare gun from her ankle and took cover behind the door. She darted in and hit the man in the head. "Nine." She said over her microphone and she heard Nick grumble something.

Ziva walked in to the room and picked up her gun and glanced around. The room contained several computers and she suspected she had found what she was looking for. She quickly circuited the room and pulled out a USB matching the description on the brief. She tucked it in her trousers and tapped her fingers on the keyboard. The screen came out with the text written in English she glanced through it and shook her head. She deleted the files on the computers; no use in NCIS getting there hands on something they didn't need to see. She muttered something in Arabic over the line and heard Nick grunt in response.

McGee poked his head around the door to be met by Ziva's gun. He frowned and ducked in to the room.

"Did you find the USB?" He asked her glancing around the room, she shook her head.

"Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum wiped them. You might be able to find the files though, knowing you." She smiled at him and he nodded earnestly.

"We'll get them back to base and have a look at them." He said as Nick headed in to the room. McGee looked up at him slightly confused. "Shouldn't you be with Carson?"

"Lost her, couldn't find her for me could yah McGee?" Nick asked shrugging his shoulders. "I may have run off in a lame attempt to out shoot Ziva." McGee nodded and darted off. As soon as he was gone Nick pulled out a wad of plastic explosive that he placed in the centre of the computers. They quickly managed to set it up to go off in five minutes. Nick ducked out of the room after Ziva who shut the door behind her. They split up and after a few second Ziva heard Nick yelling bomb over the ear pieces.

Within seconds all of the NCIS team had vacated the building and were met by Nick and Ziva arriving seconds later, through different exits. The building shook just seconds later as the bomb inside detonated. McGee looked crestfallen, while Nick looked relatively happy. He turned to Ziva and told her his final count was ten, one more than hers. She scoffed and told him that had still shot more people. Gibbs turned to Nick and glared at him.

"Did you blow that place up?" He demanded immediately. Nick blinked at him and frowned.

"No, why would I blow up a building on American soil with four federal agents inside?" He said. "I might as well just hand my badge over and walk away." He scoffed at Gibbs and stalked off towards his car. Ziva pulled out her ear piece and wire and stuffed them in to McGee's hands and shot him an apologetic look. She darted off after Nick who was getting in to his car. She quickly jumped in to the passenger seat as the car was already in gear; he pulled off before she had even shut her door.

"You are still wearing the ear piece and wire Nick. You have to return them to…" he ripped them off and threw them in the back seat and Ziva rolled her eyes. "I'll return it later shall I?" she lent over and picked up the wire, placing the ear piece back in her ear she successfully muted the wire. They drove in silence until the sounds of Gibbs voice disappeared from her ear. "We are out of range. Nicely played, bit over the top though." She smirked and he grinned back.

"You get it?" He asked she produced the USB from her pocket. He smiled at her and went back to driving the car. They went straight back to CIA headquarters. Talking and laughing the whole journey back, knowing happily they would be out of the country again in the next week. They may get a small amount of paper work before they were back out there doing what they both loved doing.

Gibbs glared at the car as it sped off in to the distance; he really hated the CIA now. They could never be trusted, it was worse that Ziva had driven off in the car. He pulled out his phone and called for a back-up team to deal with the warehouse and to collect any of the evidence left over from the blast. He summoned his team to him and told them to get back in to his car. They did so, McGee and Carson in the back, Tony riding shot gun.

It was a short trip back to NCIS and Abby was waiting in the bullpen for them, she was stood bouncing on her tip toes when they arrived. Gibbs looked at her to get her to spill what she was obviously so eager to tell them. She instead glanced over his shoulder and frowned.

"There are only four of you?" She asked as Ziva and Nick's presence had impacted the team. Ziva's impact was obvious, they all missed her and it was almost like life six months ago when everything was fine. Nick was more of an annoyance; one Tony would have shot if he wasn't CIA, and if he wasn't CIA Gibbs would have shot him first. "Where's Ziva?"

"CIA probably shacking up with Clarke." Tony spat collapsing in to his desk.

"She left again; I was hoping she would stay." Abby said her shoulders drooping. Tim wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned in to him smiling up at him. "I got the DNA results back on the spot of blood that didn't match either of the Farrington's." Abby started.

"Who did it belong to Abs?" Gibbs asked sitting at his desk. Abby glanced over at him and wrinkled her nose.

"Dunja Lazarov. Serbian terrorist, works for an 'up and coming' terror cell, Zmijski ujed. Translated it means snakebite, run by a man named Emir Aboud."

"The cell phone number Clarke gave us was for an Emir Aboud Abby." Tim input looking at her. Agent Clarke had him compare the numbers blindly, without telling them how he knew the number or where he got it from. Now they knew.

"Emir Aboud, 34 years of age is known for using biological warfare instead of your everyday bombs and guns."

"He was buying it from Nasri's pharmaceuticals." Tony said.

"What was he buying though; Clarke and David didn't mention it." Carson stood up from her desk and leaned on the front edge of it. "How do we know he hasn't already made the deal?"

"Adham Nasri, the owner of the pharmaceutical company has been out of DC for three days, but there are no traces of Emir Aboud, not recently anyways. They have either already made the deal or are yet to." Tim said typing away at his computer. He had pulled up the records of Adham Nasri and cross referenced them with the records of Emir Aboud.

"So we just have to find Emir Aboud before Adham Nasri." Tony said. "And Dunja Lazarov as well, easy!"

"No Tony, we have to find Emir Aboud and Dunja Lazarov before the CIA does."**

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**

_Enjoyed? =] Review?_


	6. Chapter Six

_Hey there forgot to update yesterday so you can get TWO today, aren't you lucky? On with the show, I present to you Chapter Six. (Imaginative titles aren't they?)_

* * *

**Chapter Six**

Ziva tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. She was sat back at her desk, doing the paperwork they had ditched a few days ago to go and play with the Navy feds. Nick had vanished at one point and she half expected him to never return, at least until they were allowed out in to the big wide world again. Ziva hit print as she finished her report. She added it to the pile of things she had actually finished. She had done quite a lot in the past few hours, considering she was anxious to get out of here.

She pulled up the next file and sighed, she wanted coffee, and her bed. Even though she didn't own a bed anymore. In fact the few things she did own were all at Nick's apartment and all of that had been purchased in the past nine weeks. She sighed and ran her hands through her hair and started to type again. Just as she was started to get on a roll somebody walked in to the office, she glanced up long enough to recognise it as Mike Smith.

"Hey boss!" She said still typing; he rolled his eyes and let his eyes fall on Nick's empty desk.

"He run off again?" Ziva nodded. "We got the information off the USB you gave us. You and Nick are going back to Serbia and you can Nick that this is the last time he is going out until he has all his paper work finished." Ziva smirked and saved the file she was working on and standing up. Mike was already at the door when he paused, hand resting on the frame. "Keep the civilian casualties to a minimum and don't blow up any more feds."

"Sure Mike, we got a flight yet?" Mike shook his head.

"Get back to international; I'll get you on a flight when you get there." She nodded, last minute as always. She flipped her phone open and dialled Nick. He answered at the second ring.

"Clarke."

"Where are you?" He chuckled.

"Getting coffee… you still doing paperwork?"

"Nope, need a lift, think you can give me one?"

"Sure where to, I'll meet you outside Headquarters."

"I'll tell you when I see you." She hung up and took the elevator down to the ground floor and walked out. Nick was waiting for her outside. "Hey, straight to Washington International, we're going back to Serbia."

"Really? Sweet." He put his foot down and sped off. By the end of the day they were both fast asleep on a direct flight to Serbia.

* * *

The NCIS team were working overly hand to try to track down Emir Aboud; they had even dragged Adham Nasri back to DC in order to speak to him. He was due to arrive in the next few hours and until then, they had little to do but pray they found something. They had gone over the CIA files multiple times and trying to wrack their brains for a small hint or clue either Clarke or David had given out.

Tony was busy trying to find Emir Aboud by looking through his records, checking known aliases and trying to piece together a profile of his past trips. Carson was going over the CIA records again, and trying to fill in the gaps with the information Tony was giving her. Tim was down in the lab with Abby trying to go over the evidence from the explosion and to access the incredibly damaged hard drive.

Gibbs was up stairs, in MTAC, he had been there for several hours now. Nobody knew what exactly he was doing, but they all assumed he was talking to somebody over at the CIA. Indeed he was, Nick and Ziva had left for Serbia already, and Mike Smith was trying in vain to explain to Gibbs that they were still in DC. Gibbs was not falling for his lies however, and the result was that both agents were silently glaring at each other.

It was the early hours of the morning when Tim rang up to the bullpen with a message for Gibbs; they found data on one of the computers. Apparently, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had not whipped the hard drive enough to bypass McGee and Abby. Tony sighed as he took the message and then headed up to MTAC. He scanned his eye and walked in to the room. Vance and Mike Smith were negotiating over the whereabouts of Nick and Ziva but he was still not budging.

"Look, Vance, I get it, you want this case, but I am not going to pull my agents out of whatever it is they are doing to have a chat with you."

"That's because they aren't in DC Smith! This was meant to be a joint case, and your agents withheld evidence and went behind our backs. They blew up our crime scene!"

"You have no evidence that they blew anything up." Smith countered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Look I haven't got time for this, and your agent wants to talk Vance. I'm guessing he has something that will elicit better results than hassling me." Mike said before ending the conference call. Vance and Gibbs turned around to Tony who was hovering near the door.

"McGee got the data off the computers. He wants you down in Abby's lab." Tony said and moved out of the door when Gibbs and Vance made towards him.

"Gibbs you're here, we did it, well McGee did it, I was busy doing other things but it's still cracked!" Abby bounced around happily. Gibbs and Vance both stared at McGee who stuttered in to an explanation.

"We have a series of E-mails, on the hard drive between Aboud and Nasri. We traced the internet connections to where they were sent and found that it was connected in loads of countries, but the most recent was Serbia, a week ago. That was like two days before the Farrington's were killed."

"So Aboud is in Serbia? Ziva said she'd been to Serbia." Tony said but McGee shook his head.

"How did the computer get over here?"

"Somebody else brought it?" Tony suggested. The room fell silent for a few minutes.

"Can you get a more exact location than just Serbia McGee?" Vance asked walking around the lab. McGee nodded.

"Got co-ordinates." He replied and pulled them up. Vance turned around and smiled at the team.

"Pack your bags, your going to Serbia."

* * *

Ziva and Nick clambered off the plane landing back on Serbian soil. They were at Nikola Tesla airport in Belgrade, or Beograd. The capital of Serbia, as it was the first flight they could get out of DC and to Serbia. They walked out on to the street and quickly found a cab; neither of them could speak Serbian so they had five minutes trying to give the driver the name of the hotel Mike had gotten for them. When they finally made it to the hotel they both collapsed on to the sofa and Nick pulled out his cell phone and hit number three on his speed dial list, it went straight through to Mike.

"Michael Smith." He greeted.

"Hey Mike, we're here, got anything for us?"

"Fax machine in your room, its room fourteen right?"

"Sure is." Nick said as he walked over to a fax machine in the corner. "How did you get a fax machine in to a hotel like this?"

"I know the owner, and he owes me big time." Nick chuckled and glanced over his shoulder, Ziva was sat on the couch watching him intently. "You got the file through yet?" Mike asked.

Nick nodded as the paper started being spat out at him. "Yeah, I got it thanks Mike." Nick said before ending the call and collecting the thin sheets of paper as they came out of the printer. He stapled them together and flipped through them quickly, before joining Ziva on the sofa again. They sat close together; Nick had an arm over the back of the couch while they read the file in silent at the same time. It didn't take them long to realise that the meeting place for the two business partners, Nasri and Aboud was a restaurant on the other side of town. Nick grinned as he read it and smirked at Ziva. It was a very high end restaurant, Nasri and Aboud wouldn't meet there otherwise. Ziva rolled her eyes when she scanned over that line knowing what Nick was going to say to her.

"Want to go to dinner darling?" He said smirking. She leaned back and looked him up and down slowly, making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

"You want to go to …" she checked the restaurant name again, "Tri Sesira dressed like that?" Nick glanced down at his clothes and wrinkled his nose.

"Maybe we should go shopping, maybe buy you a nice dress and me a nice suit." He smirked and Ziva rolled her eyes at him playfully. "Come on, we have to at least scout this place out tonight. We might even get lucky and see Aboud, and then we shoot him. Badda bing badda boom case closed."

"I thought you enjoyed working out in the field?"

"I still need a vacation; it's been years since I took a few days off."

"Would now be a good time to tell you that Mike isn't letting you leave the office until you have your paperwork completed when we get back to DC?"

"Damn, I swear I don't even know how we ended up with that much paper work! Didn't Mike force us to do something while we were in Serbia last time?" Ziva shrugged and stood up, vanishing in to the bathroom for a few minutes. Nick picked up the folder and leafed through it again.

"I think we should go out tonight. It's getting late though and I need something better to wear than what I am wearing!" She poked her head around the bathroom door and Nick grinned at her and jumped up. He darted forwards and grabbed her wrist and yanked her out of the doorway. He pulled her out of their room and out in to the street outside. It didn't take them long to find some clothing shops as their hotel seemed to be in the centre of the town. Nick pulled Ziva in to the first shop and wandered around. They spent the next few hours buying clothes, and essential things they thought would be needed. Or they wanted and as they both had access to CIA funded credit cards, they went a bit mad.

"I think we bought too much Nick." Ziva laughed as she dropped the bags on the couch. He shrugged and pulled out a laptop he had bought.

"We need this stuff, besides it was fun. Can't always go through missions seriously David!" He smirked at her while plugging the laptop in to the mains and to the internet. Ziva dug through some of the bags, they had each purchased rucksacks and changes of clothing. Ziva filled the two rucksacks, in case of an emergency. She rummaged through the last two bags pulling out a suit and a purple dress. She glanced at Nick who was busy typing away at something and looked over his shoulder.

"Tri Sesira? What are you doing?" She asked, he smirked at her and picked up the phone. She watched as he booked them a table for tonight and found herself smiling at him. He winked at her and she threw his suit at him. "You had better get dressed." She said grabbing her own clothing and wandering in to the bathroom. She turned on the shower and stepped in, shampooing and washing away the stresses of a very long plane journey followed by shopping with a person worse than Abby when it came to spending other people's money.

When she exited the bathroom she was dressed in her deep purple knee length satin feel dress. It was a halter neck dress with a low back; she had twisted her hair back off her face, leaving a few curly tendrils to fall out of the clasp. She added make-up that they had bought with the dress and the black shoes as well. Ziva managed to fit her gun under the dress and her cell phone and knife in to the small purse that matched her shoes. Upon her exit of the bathroom she didn't see Nick and assumed he was in the bedroom getting changed.

"My lady." He whispered in her ear and she smiled, he could never make her jump, just as she couldn't sneak up on him like she had been able to with Tony. He walked around her and looked her up and down making noises of acknowledgement. "Not bad, not bad at all. You managed to get your gun on under there?" He queried and she pulled at the hem of her skirt up enough to reveal her gun. "Good girl, now let's go." He offered her his arm and she took it as he led her out of the room.

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_Review? =]_

_How are you liking it? Let me know, I love feedback. Be really mean! Well not really mean, well you can be mean I guess but ... rambling. Next chapter will be going up soon!_


	7. Chapter Seven

_=0 I was meant to post this yesterday. Mega sorry, I need to remember to upload Chapter eight too. *Goes to sort it out for uploading*_

_Ok, on with the show!_

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**Chapter Seven**

Tony threw his bag on to the bed and collapsed next to it. He hated long haul flights and this one was the worst ever. He had ended up seated between McGee and Carson who seemed to enjoy talking to each other over him. He had tried to listen to some music and fall asleep but then McGee had gotten his laptop out and started clicking and clacking at the keys. It drove Tony insane, and Carson wasn't much better humming and nodding her head in time to the music she was listening to. By the time they had landed Carson had nodded off and even McGee had got a few hours sleep. Unfortunately it was never at the same time, so Tony either had McGee tapping or Carson humming the entire journey.

He had closed his eyes for a few minutes and suddenly Gibbs was slamming him on the top of his head. He groaned and rolled over, and fell right off the side of the bed. He heard Carson chuckling and was vaguely aware that Gibbs was glaring at her. He smirked as the Probie agent sobered up pretty quickly and returned her gaze to the laptop perched on her knees. She had a file open on top of the keyboard. McGee was sat next to her once more typing at full speed. Tony slowly got up off the floor and brushed himself off. He glanced at Gibbs who was still staring at Carson, deep in thought.

"DiNozzo, we're going on stake-out. You and Carson are taking the first shift. A restaurant close by here, Tri Sesira. It's a known meeting place for Nasri and Aboud. If they are both here they may pop in for a visit."

"How long was I asleep?" Tony asked wondering how he had missed so much in the case. Gibbs smirked at him.

"Not long, but Abby spent the time we were on the plane going through the E-mails and information on the computers, the Tri Sesira came up at least four times she said." Tony nodded and sat back down. He yawned and stretched before grinning at Carson.

"Ready to go on stake-out Probie deux?" Tony asked, using his nickname for her. Tony turned to Gibbs and furrowed his brow a second. "Wouldn't it be easier to go in to the restaurant?" He queried.

"Couldn't get a reservation." McGee answered. "Apparently it is very popular and up market, and you need to book well in advance. Although they did say we missed out on a couple of tables that only went earlier this morning." McGee rattled off and Tony blinked at him.

"DiNozzo! Carson! Why are you still here?" Gibbs said and Tony jumped to attention and ran out of the door Carson had to run full pelt to catch up to him. She only just made it in to the elevator before the doors closed. She took a deep breath and Tony grinned.

"Out of breathe already Carson? Or are you just anxious to be on stake-out with me?"

"We've been on stake-out's before DiNozzo, and I'm not out of breathe I was just taking a deep breath." She countered folding her arms across her chest. Tony chuckled and then dashed out again once the elevator doors opened forcing Carson to run after him, yelling his name as she did so. Tony jumped in to one of the rentals that Vance had arranged for them a good ten seconds before Carson, despite the short distance they had just ran.

"You aren't very fit Carson, you should run more often. Catch more bad guys and earn yourself more brownie points with the boss." He said as he pulled out of the car park and on to the street. "Where am I going by the way?" He asked and Carson smirked pointing him towards the end of the street. He followed her directions to a short distance away from the hotel and parked the car.

"It doesn't look open yet…" He mumbled, pulling out a pair or binoculars and holding them up to his eyes.

"It opens at 0930 in a morning, and runs throughout the day until 1830 when they close to change the table cloths and the like to make it more romantic for the couples who come later on. It re-opens at 1730 and closes again at 2230."

"Romantic? Why would two blokes go for the romance session?"

"Because nobody would suspect them too? Or maybe romantic was the wrong word, more sophisticated." Carson said as they sat in the dimly lit car. The sun had yet to set but it was obviously almost there. The restaurant was well lit up outside and the street lights were beginning to brighten. The sky had gone a mix of reds and gold streaks from what they could see above the buildings in the capital city. It was 1725 and Tony was watching as a man outside the restaurant opened the door and propped it open with something. Tony and Carson stayed quiet in their seats as they watched the slow trickle of couples beginning to descend upon the building. At each couple Carson would take photographs while Tony would just stare at them through his binoculars. They did this for an hour before Tony started to complain.

"Are we meant to sit here until 2230?" He asked and Carson shrugged. "You aren't bothered?"

"Brownie points DiNozzo, brownie points." Tony used his binoculars to glance up and down the street. He followed a man walking in to the restaurant with a very blonde woman on his arm. Tony watched as the woman flirted with the waiter on the door. He scoffed at this muttering something about how she was obviously a gold digger wanting to pay for her next breast enhancement surgery. He turned the binoculars back down the street and groaned as he saw a familiar face swing in to view walking towards the restaurant.

"You're kidding me, they have reservations?" He scoffed keeping his eyes fixed on the couple. Ziva was laughing at something, she was clasping Nick's hand in her own and he was smiling widely at her. She gently nudged him with her shoulder and he dropped her hand and wrapped it around her shoulder, placing a kiss on her head. Tony scowled, that was so not like Ziva to let him do that to her. They approached the door and Nick let go of Ziva's shoulders. He was speaking to the man on the door, and when he let his hand drop back to his side Ziva grasped it again.

"Damnit, I can't even believe they are here!" Tony yelled, causing Carson to jump slightly. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and angrily hit for his speed dial list. Gibbs picked up the phone quickly but Tony didn't even give him a chance to speak. "Agent Clarke and David are here, and by here I mean in the restaurant here."

"I'm not surprised their supervisor wouldn't hand out their location so I figured they were off US soil already." Gibbs replied. "Keep an eye on them Tony, but don't lose your head because you can guarantee they wont. Never trust the CIA."

"Don't need to tell me twice." He mumbled in reply remembering his own encounter with the not so loved Trent Kort. He ended the call and placed his phone back in his pocket. Resuming watching the doors of the restaurant, holding the binoculars a little too tightly.

* * *

Nick pulled the chair out for Ziva as they entered the room and she smiled at him genuinely. He sat down opposite her and the waiter handed him a wine menu. Ziva watched him as he selected something from the menu and pointed it out to the waiter. He nodded before leaving them to it.

"I don't get a say in what I drink now?" She mocked.

"I wanted the best; I just don't want you to know how deep my pockets are." He smiled and waggled his eyebrows playfully and she laughed again, knowing it was not the depth of Nick's pockets that were in question. He reached across the table and took her hand in his. "So, my love, how are you tonight?"

"Never better, mon petit pois." He rolled his eyes.

"My little pea?"

"It's a common pet name in many countries." Ziva retorted and he chuckled. They fell silent and Nick felt his eyes drawn to the window near to their table. He furrowed his brow as he watched a fixed point across the street. He grunted and Ziva squeezed his hand, he glanced at her and she nodded. "They were there when we arrived, you did not notice?" He shook his head.

"Too busy admiring my view." He smirked and she kicked him under the table. "Next time, Ziva, next time." He smirked.

"They will not be here for us; we shouldn't let them distract us." Ziva whispered as the waiter appeared and offered the bottle of champagne. Ziva caught the label and raised her eyes at Nick who smiled sheepishly. "Pricey." She muttered and she chuckled. "I'm glad I aren't signing for this."

"We could go halves." He suggested, half-heartedly. He received a glare in response from Ziva, he handed her a glass of the most expensive champagne on the menu as the waiter poured it. He took the second one and held it up, Ziva did similar and the tapped the top of the glasses together. "To us, a great partnership." Ziva couldn't help but laugh before she took a sip of the bubbly champagne.

They quickly chose the food they were going to order, they opted to skip the choice of starters and went straight for the main course. Ziva chose a fish dish that she managed to pronounce perfectly yet Nick couldn't, while he chose the most expensive dish on their not knowing what it was, although they had a good guess. They were pretty accurate, it was meat at least. They ate in companionable silence, only stopping to swap pieces of food when one of them came across something on their plates they thought the other person would enjoy.

By the time they had finished eating they had gotten through the entire bottle of champagne. Nick caught the eye of the waiter and ordered another bottle. He brought it out quickly and poured them another glass each before swapping the new bottle out for the old one in their ice bucket.

"We should not drink so much Nick; you are a bad influence on me."

"This is my vacation, come on! I have tonnes of paperwork to do back home, let me have some fun!" He whined and she gave in, not that he had to work that hard. She could practically feel the heated gave of whoever was in that van across the street, she was vaguely aware of it being Agent Carson in the front seat, but the person in the driving seat had their face obscured by binoculars. She had an odd feeling it was Tony though, she couldn't explain it though. So she let Nick pour her another glass of champagne while she scanned the restaurant for the sixteenth time.

"Do you want pudding?" He asked leaning back in his chair and observing her eyes darting around the room. She turned her eyes to him and smiled, he knew that smiled. So he leaned forwards in his chair, and she did as well.

"Type of pudding?" She whispered and she let her eyes drop, trailing down his body and then back up again. She smiled at him and titled her head to one side.

"The most exquisite pudding you've ever tasted." She seemed to consider him for a few minutes before answering him.

"Perhaps we should wait a while." She said glancing around the room again. He chuckled and took her hand.

"If he isn't here now Ziva he won't come at all. It's nearly 2200 and this place shuts in half an hour." She nodded slowly before smiling at him and nodding with more conviction. "Ok, let's ditch this joint." He called over the waiter and he quickly paid for the meal. He grabbed her hand and walked her out of the restaurant. He led her out in to the cold air and she shivered. He shrugged off his jacket quickly and wrapped it around her shoulders wrapped his arm underneath the jacket and around her waist. He pulled her tight to his side and walked off down the street.

They didn't get far; Ziva stopped before they had even reached the end of the street and removed her shoes. Nick took them, hooking them over his little finger and letting them swing loosely by his leg. Ziva laughed at him and leaned in to him as he led her down the street and around the corner. It was a long walk back to their hotel but neither really wanted to get a taxi back. It was a nice night, and they were enjoying the relaxation of being able to walk through a city, after a very expensive meal and even more expensive champagne.

* * *

_So, review?_

_=] I'm writing the sequel to my other story still. Only got another five chapters until it's finished and then I can start uploading it when I get back from Greece. All while typing up the sequel to this! ^^ and so you are getting a lot of writing out of me this summer!_

_Have a good day!_


	8. Chapter Eight

_Okay Chapter Eight for you here. Hope you enjoy this while I go to the dentist to get my teeth prodded and poked. I KNOW that I need another filling... I can just tell._

_Anyway, on with the show!_

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

Tony drives their car back to the hotel when the restaurant closed. He was hungry and tired and wanted nothing more than to go back to DC and get drunk, pick up a girl in a bar and take her back to his house. He knew that wouldn't happen, since Jeanne things had teetered off in a big way. He screwed that up and he didn't know how to get back out there. It had gotten worse following Ziva leaving for Tel Aviv, he was constantly worried about her and nothing could change that. He parked the car and jumped out. Carson trailed behind him, equally as tired.

When they got back to the hotel room Carson wandered over to McGee and handed him the camera with the photographs on. They hadn't managed to ID Aboud or Nasri entering the restaurant but they had to make sure. So while Carson and McGee uploaded all of the faces to the computer and E-mailed them to Abby, Tony collapsed on to the bed again. He fell asleep pretty quickly and as usual slept fitfully. He hadn't even taken his shoes off as he collapsed on one of the two double beds in the hotel.

He started to dream, as he did so often these days. He started at the beginning; Kate was shot in front of him. He felt the splatter of blood on his face and he spun around trying in vain to arm himself against a sniper. He glanced at her lifeless body on the floor, her eyes wide open and glassy. A trickle of blood seeping out of a bullet hole in her forehead. Simple, precise. Who else could it be but a man trained by Mossad and Hamas, Ari Haswari.

Then he jumped and he was in a room, with Gibbs and Paula. There was a commotion, and a terrorist and the slamming of a wall. He slammed his own body against the concrete as it slammed shut but he was too late. Paula was gone now too. She jumped on a terrorist, blown to pieces just like her team. That's one less woman in his life. He went to Jeanne that night and told her he loved her, and that brought on the next scenario.

Jeanne, he loved her, he really had. She was smart, and funny and beautiful. She had not deserved what he had forced her through, causing her to fall in love only to break her heart. He remembered the conversation they had, sat in a park, holding hands. She had demanded the truth, and he had pointed her towards her father. She didn't understand, and he didn't have the heart to tell her all of the truth. That was the last time he thought he would see her, but then she tried to frame him for murder, and he told her it was all a lie and he didn't love her.

Then he was in L.A. and Jenny was dead, and it was his fault. He should have trusted Ziva's gut, and taken more time to find her. They were her security detail, but they screwed up and she was in a diner, dead. Bleeding out on the cold stone floor. Her eyes closed, her arm splayed out in front of her and her red hair intermingled with her blood. Ziva found her, and Tony pressed a finger to her neck, no pulse. She was cold, stone cold. He turned to Ziva in his dream, but she wasn't there anymore and he was back in DC.

She wasn't there anymore, she had always been there. She had turned up and put the team back together after Kate's death. He had helped Paula, albeit in vain. She had helped Tony come to terms with what happened between him and Jeanne and she had cared for him after Jenny died at their hands. He felt guilty for not protecting her when she chose to return to Tel Aviv, for not forcing her to face the problem head on like she did for him on so many occasions. And, like every other night as this thought struck him, the guilt. He awoke. Sweating and breathing heavily.

He knew there would be no more sleep that night and she he stood up, glancing at the clock. 0237, he slipped off his shoes, and felt the relief in his feet. He padded through in to the adjoining bathroom and splashed water on his face, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He noticed that Gibbs was asleep in the other bed and he crept out and in to the main area. Agent Carson had fallen asleep on the three seater sofa, her head propped up on the arm of the chair. McGee was asleep in one of the armchairs; his head lolled back on the head rest and his laptop still open on his knee.

Tony carefully took the laptop off McGee's knee and sat down on the other sofa. It was half past two in the morning here, and as Washington is six hours behind that would make it 2037 the previous day. He quickly checked the internet connection before setting up a video link to Abby's lab. He was pretty sure she would still be there, and there she was.

"Hey Abby." Tony whispered as the Goth appeared on screen. She beamed at him.

"Tony! How are you, why are you whispering?" She said whispering right back. Tony tilted the screen and gave her a view of McGee, he heard her chuckle and he pointed the webcam at Agent Carson. She smiled at him when he faced the webcam back at him. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"I couldn't sleep, the boss is in there!" Tony lied sarcastically.

"More nightmares?" She asked and he nodded, Abby was the only person who knew, mainly because after a night out following Ziva's departure he crashed at her house. He woke up on the couch next to her shaking. She had forced him to tell him what he was dreaming about. So he bore his soul to her. "Same one?" Another nod from Tony, another shake of the head from Abby. "You need a shrink Tony." She smirked.

"Tell me about it, but while I'm up, have you got anything new for us? I might as well get some work done while these slackers are catching up on their beauty sleep." He joked and she rolled her eyes.

"Actually I do, I ran the faces from the pictures and got a hit on a few of them. Obviously I got a hit on the pictures of Ziva and Agent Clarke, but both of their files have been blocked out, CIA for you. I got a hit on this guy," she flicked a button and Tony's screen was covered by a guy with a very young and very well endowed girl on his arm. "I am not referring to the man though, if you look really closely, the woman is a bloke. OK really really closely. I ran and re ran the scan about five times and I still don't believe it."

"_She_ is a _he_?" Tony asked stunned, that was the woman who had caught his eye before Ziva had come strutting down the street on the arm of Nick Clarke. Abby nodded and Tony gawped some more. "So who is she, I mean he, who is he?"

"That, Anthony DiNozzo was Emir Aboud." She said happily and Tony just stared at the image more. Now he looked at it, he realised Abby had enlarged and enhanced the image making it clearer. He stared at the bone structure in her face, his face in shock. He heard Abby giggling over the line and moved the image out of the way to continue their conference call.

"He has awesome bone structure." He said and Abby smirked at him.

"You were checking him out weren't you?" Tony glowered at Abby and she chuckled more. "It's quite alright Tony; your secret is safe with me. It might not be safe if Carson noticed you checking him out, who knows who she might tell!"

"Have you got anything else Abby?" Tony mumbled.

"Sure do, been doing a bit of background, but get this. The guy that Aboud enters the restaurant with is not the same guy that he leaves with. I found out that he enters with a man named Frederick Vrbaski; he is your everyday business man with no life outside of work. I reckon he just got a bit too happy with Aboud's exterior to check out his interior. Men never learn. Anyway he leaves with this guy. I haven't identified him yet and Carson only got this one picture and it's really terrible. I'm going to see if I can find him entering the restaurant." Abby rambled.

"Good job Abs, give me a call when you find something. Get some sleep too, can't have you running on empty." She rattled a Caf-Pow in front of the screen. "Okay, Caf-Pow is on my tab." He chuckled before ending the conference call. He shook his head at the picture of Emir Aboud and minimized the image. He pulled up the research that McGee and Carson had been working on earlier and read through it.

* * *

Ziva woke up in Nick's arms; she leaned over to check the time. 0645, the clock was set to go off in fifteen minutes so stayed in the bed. She moved slightly and felt Nick wrap his arms around her tighter as she wriggled. She smiled and closed her eyes again. The next time she woke up she noticed that she was alone on their bed. She rolled over to see the clock now read 0757; she looked at the doorway where Nick was leaning.

"I was just coming to get you up. Sam just called, you know the Australian guy who has been trailing Dunja Lazarov for the past few months? He called for me to track somebody down because I'm much better at my job than he is at his."

"Modest, and yes I remember Sam he was very nice." Ziva replied sitting up in the bed and watching Nick.

"He was watching a meet between Dunja and another few guys, one of which, Emir Aboud. He ran his face on Interpol and got a CIA case so he rang me."

"So? What does that tell us? We have to shoot Dunja Lazarov now to get to Aboud?"

"Nope, he caught part of their conversation. Lazarov and Aboud are making the same deal with Nasri, for bio hazardous drugs. They're going to meet up with Nasri at the Golubac fortress on the edges of Serbia. So road trip time Zee, pack your bags we are going to Golubac." She rolled her eyes but clambered out of the bed anyways.

"Can I shower first?" She yelled at Nick, even though she was going to whether he liked it or not.

"Yeah sure, Sam said he was going to meet up with us in Golubac town because he is getting a train out there or something. We can get a car and beat him there." Nick replied as Ziva stepped under the water of the shower. When she got out Nick had packed up all of their things in to the two rucksacks they had bough yesterday. She asked him how they were going to get a car and he just smirked at her.

Less than an hour later they were on the road, in a black convertible car that Nick had taken a liking to as they walked down one of the more upper class streets in the town. He smirked as he jumped in to the car and hot wired it. Ziva told herself she didn't have an option to jump in it when he was going to steal it anyways, but she couldn't help but love his style. She let her arm dangle over the outside of the car as the wind swept through her hair. Nick put on his sunglasses and grinned at her, she had a flashback of Tony doing similar in L.A. in a shiny red convertible.

* * *

_Shiny red convertibles sexy. So I've heard this would be a good Tiva. I might make the sequel in to a Tiva, what do you think? May have some Tiva loving... Any other pairings you may like to see, Carson/McGee? McArson. Lol. CarGee. Stupid. Ziva/Nick? Abby/Nick hehe. Be wacky make some nutty suggestions to me. Gibbs/Nick? Gick? Nibbs... I like that. Nibbs. Ahem anyway._

_I haven't wrote a Disclaimer in a while... I own everything. /Sarcasm I really aren't funny. Brian Regan is though. =] Check him out. Oh and you know the Numa Numa song (Dragostea din tei) have you watched the Hebrew version... MILES better than the original!_


	9. Chapter Nine

_Penultimate chapter for you. _

_I'm writing this while listening to Hadag Nahash their music is so catchy! I loooove the sticker song. _

_Anyway, last chapter tomorrow!_

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

It was 0600 when Gibbs came out of the bedroom; he glanced at Tony before leaving the hotel room quietly. He arrived back at the room twenty minutes later, two cups of coffee in had. He wordlessly placed one next to Tony who glanced up at his boss and smiled. Tony threw a wad of paper at McGee's head as Gibbs vanished in to the bedroom again. McGee shut up and then glared at Tony. Tony turned and threw another wad of paper at Carson who did similar to McGee complete with glare.

"Got some news, well Abby does but she isn't here to tell you. She fell asleep a few hours ago." Tony said and Abby and Carson sat up straighter. "Hey boss, come back in here, got an update for you!" Gibbs appeared at the door again and Tony pulled up the picture of Mrs Emir Aboud, he swirled the laptop around on his knee so the other NCIS agents could see.

"This is Emir Aboud." He said pointing to the woman. "Abby did facial recognition on everybody and she rechecked it, plus she entered with this guy, your everyday businessman who picks up prostitutes that are actually male. And she left with," he turned the laptop around to find the second picture, "this guy. Abby couldn't get a clear enough shot of his face to ID from this picture but after scouring through the photographs again we believe he is this guy, Dunja Lazarov.

"I checked his background after Abby passed out on the floor and he seems to be in to the same sort of stuff as Emir Aboud. Turns out they are both after Nasri's load, except Lazarov is a bit easier to trace than Aboud. He jumped a train last night to Golubac boss." Gibbs stared at him. "We are going to Golubac then…" Gibbs increased his gaze, diverting it amongst his team. They quickly jumped up and grabbed their stuff, shoving shirts in to bags and slinging them over their shoulders, Gibbs was hovering near the door for them with his own bag already packed.

They drove quickly to the local train station; Gibbs managed to buy them four tickets to Golubac and within the hour they were sat on the train on there way. McGee quickly pulled his laptop out and turned it on. He read through the information Tony had gathered over night, while Tony fell asleep on the train. McGee managed to pull up the records of Dunja Lazarov and began to search through his history, looking for things to compare against Nasri and Aboud. It wasn't a long journey; Agent Carson fell asleep next to McGee. When they got off the train they were diverted with everybody else to take the left exit.

Gibbs and Carson were caught up in the crowds of people and didn't initially realise they had lost their boss and Tony when McGee heard his name being called. He grabbed hold of Carson's wrist and fought his way against the throng of people in the incredibly small train station. He caught sight of Tony, who summoned McGee to him; he followed and noticed that Gibbs seemed to be arguing with a Serbian police officer. McGee looked over the police tape on the railing and groaned.

"Dunja Lazarov's dead?" He asked, obviously not happy. The area cordoned off by the police was relatively empty as several guards were steering people away from the area to prevent congestion. Tony turned away from the scene and glanced around at the guards and the people close by. He noticed a man leaning in the corner of the station. Out of sight of the guards but he had a perfect view of the crime scene. He was on his cell phone and his eyes met Tony's for a second before breaking contact and walking away. Tony took a step forwards to follow him but Gibbs called him back.

"DiNozzo, we get to look at the scene." Gibbs said as he ducked under the tape, Tony followed reluctantly glancing back to see the man had completely vanished from his view. It was an obvious cause of death, bullet to the head, sniper. Tony bit back the memory of his previous nightmare and Kate's face swam in to his minds eye. He blinked repeatedly until he managed to focus on the scene in front of him. Dunja Lazarov had obviously been exiting the station; the exit wound was on his forehead so his back had been to the shooter.

Gibbs sent McGee to glance through the evidence that the Serbian police had collected. He sent Tony to go and talk to one of the police officers while he and Carson hovered over the body, waiting for some for of clue that could lead them to their next destination. It didn't take long, McGee was the first person to find something, and he quickly called of his boss to join him by two large evidence boxes.

"What McGee?" Gibbs asked impatiently.

"This, it's a note and those are co-ordinates. I think I know where for as well, but I'll have to check it." He rambled; McGee grabbed a pen out of his bag and scribbled the co-ordinates on his hand. He placed the paper back in the box and dashed over to his computer plugging the co-ordinates in. It flashed up several images and he smiled, it obviously had just confirmed his theory.

"The Golubac fortress and it's just down the river from here." He informed Gibbs proudly. "They must have been meeting up there, him, Nasri and Aboud."

"Good job Tim." Gibbs praised while summoning the police officer in charge of the scene. "We need a car, now." He demanded and after several long minutes of angry conversation in broken English the two came to an agreement. Gibbs would get a car as long as this was going to be his last visit to Serbia. Gibbs agreed and snatched the keys with a half hearted promise to return the car. He called Tony and Carson who ran over to him and they all piled in the car.

* * *

When he got off his train Sam had been met by much the same scene as the NCIS team, he managed to slip away sooner and caught a glance of Lazarov as the coronary was completing his preliminary examination. He pulled his cell phone out as soon as he recognised the man and dialled for Nick Clarke. It took a while to get through to him but when he eventually did he caught sight of a silver haired man stalking towards the police line and flashing what he could only guess was a badge of some form.

"Clarke here but I'm going to have to pass you on to David as I'm driving." He said in a light hearted tone, Sam could hear what sounded like the phone being tossed to the side and he heard a woman saying 'hey watch it' loudly before she answered the phone.

"Hello?" She queried.

"It's Sam Kennedy, Ziva isn't it?"

"Yeah, we're at Golubac now Sam just ho…"

"Lazarov is dead, by the looks of it a sniper shot to the back of the head. Serbian cops already took over the scene."

"Oh, by the time they figure it out we'll have it sorted, they don't know about the meet yet."

"No, they don't, but we have another problem."

"Oh?" She queried not wanting to hear this.

"Some people are here, they look like cops, but I can hear them yelling and it's American. So somebody got the Feds involved."

"It's NCIS, and get out of there before one of them spots you. We'll pick you up outside the train station, we are just pulling up to it now get outside." Ziva said and Sam glanced towards the NCIS agents. One of them caught his eyes but he quickly dropped his gaze and turned around.

"Too late, but I'm heading out now." He said before ending the call and disappearing in to the now thinning crowds. He could feel eyes on the back of his head but he didn't comment, instead he just forced his way through the crowds and made it to outside of the building. He spotted Nick and Ziva without much hassle. They seemed to be attracting a fair amount of attention by their presence anyway; the black sports car was at least.

"Are you two trying to be subtle with this or something?" He asked sarcastically as he clambered in to the back of the car. Nick hit the gas immediately and in a matter of seconds the train station was gone from view.

"It is black." Ziva stated smiling softly. "Good to meet you again Sam, although last time was a very fleeting visit."

"Yeah, how are the ribs?" He asked referring to when he had turned up at the hospital she was at in Louisiana while Nick was with her once. They had turned to Spanish to try to communicate without her being aware, something she had put a stop to when Sam had left by wishing him farewell in Spanish, and telling him to be more careful with swapping languages in future. He had gotten rather abashed and hastened to leave the room; she had not seen him since, although they had spoken on the phone once or twice since then.

"Fine, how is the Spanish?" she joked twisting around in her seat to face him. He grimaced and she smiled and turned around. "I am joking. However you said that Lazarov is dead?"

"Yeah, when I got off the train the security was herding people off to the left exit so I ducked out and caught sight of the crime scene. I got close enough to ID the victim as Dunja Lazarov and called you. It must have happened when he got off his train which would have been a fair few hours ago. The cops were swarming all over the scene."

"NCIS?"

"Which is what exactly?"

"Naval criminal investigative service, American Navy Federal Agents. What were they doing there? Did they stop and survey the crime scene?"

"I don't know I know that as I glanced back the grey haired one was ducking under the tape. Not sure if they ended up staying though. They could still be there now, or they could have found evidence to bring them to the fortress and be heading this way now." Ziva glanced at him over her shoulder before turning to Nick.

"Gibbs drives fast and recklessly, put your foot down Nick." She demanded. Nick heeded her and floored the gas it didn't take them long after that to reach the point where the road stopped. They all clambered out and checked their guns, their back-up weapons and the small collection of knives they had between the three of them. They then slipped off towards the Fortress. It was large, built on three levels and with ten turrets. It was incredibly old and falling apart in places.

The CIA, Mossad and ASIS agent crept through the undergrowth that was leading up to the fortress. The fortress was large and they weren't entirely sure where the meeting was to take place so they decided to start at the top and work their way down. So now they were creeping through the thick bushes and shrubbery to get access to the top of the run down castle. It took them longer than they realised and when they finally made it they had to scale a small wall to get in to the Fortress. Ziva and Nick climbed it without preamble, Sam hesitated but when Nick dropped from sight to the other side and Ziva glared at him he quickly pulled himself over the top of the wall.

They searched the top level quickly and then made their way to the precipice where it led down to the next level. They scanned the area below them and they all spotted the familiar figures entering the fortress from the bottom, near the river. They each took cover behind something and kept an eye out on the four NCIS agents that had turned up. This was going to get interesting, especially if Aboud and Nasri turn up. Ziva and Nick were both contemplating shooting NCIS if they had scared either of them off.

Nick poked his head out from behind the wall he had ducked behind and caught a glance of Gibbs signalling to his team to hide, they did so immediately and Nick managed to catch a glimpse of a man walking out of a small crack in one of the wall on to the third level. He hovered there in silence for a few minutes and Nick saw Ziva pulling out her cell phone. He smirked aware of what she was doing; he had also seen the NCIS officer twitch the only thing that stopped him was his ringing cell phone.

"Gibbs," Ziva whispered when he answered, "wait, don't take him out until Nasri get's here." She almost laughed when she saw him glancing around to try to catch sight of her.

"Where are you?" He demanded but she had hung up her phone already, placing it back in her pocket. She smirked at Nick who gave her the thumbs up. It was a long wait, for NCIS, for Ziva, Nick and Sam as well as Aboud. He was almost about to leave when he stopped, catching sight of somebody from below. Ziva thought for a second he had seen one of the NCIS team until she saw Nasri on the lower level. Acting without thinking Ziva re-holstered her gun and jumped off her level and landed on Aboud's back, knocking them both on to the ground.

* * *

_Review?_

_By the way ASIS stands for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. Not sure if you knew that, but I didn't. Had to look it up. Most places have good name, CIA and ASIS. I want to know who the hell came up with MI6 for the English version. Nuts._


	10. Chapter Ten

_Last chapter for you. I'm going to Greece tomorrow. . I have to wake up at 0400. Going to be FUN. Sarcasm._

_Yeah, so I don't own this. =] I'm just borrowing the characters while they are on Hiatus. =] _

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

_Acting without thinking Ziva re-holstered her gun and jumped off her level and landed on Aboud's back, knocking them both on to the ground_.

She rolled off him and leapt to her feet as Nick appeared on the ledge above her, his gun was out and pointed at Nasri. She didn't waste a glance over her shoulder as Aboud was upright by now. She could hear sounds of a struggle and suspected that NCIS were dealing with Nasri.

She went to reach for her gun on her hip after standing back up again but before she could Aboud had closed the distance between them and started throwing punches. His own weapon had dislodged and been sent flying by her tackle. He sent a punch towards her and she blocked it replacing it with a kick to the back of his leg. His leg gave out and he fell sideways. Ziva stepped back as he hit the ground and went to un-holster her weapon again but he spun around and kicked her legs out from under her.

She hit the floor on her back and they scuffled for a few minutes, both hitting and blocking their fair share of punches and kicks. Ziva was vaguely aware of a yell elsewhere and managed to kick Aboud off her long enough to glance down to the next ledge. Gibbs, Sam and Carson were very far away, at the very bottom of the bottom ledge. She clambered up, wondering where Nick McGee and Nasri had gone. She had taken her eyes off Aboud for a second too long and he ran at her and tackled her again. He was painfully unaware however that she was stood very close to the edge of the cliff. Below was a very steep and very long drop.

She screamed as she fell off the side of the cliff, Aboud flying off with her. She hit the grassy slope a few feet down and continued to roll down, the odd rock caught her and she knew that it would bruise later. She tried to slow herself down by grabbing hold of something, anything but the momentum of Aboud's tackle kept them both moving. She was about half way down when she started to slow and she eventually managed to grasp on to a rock to stop herself completely. She glanced to her left further down the cliff to see that Aboud was also slowing to a stop.

She released her grasp on the rock that she had steadied herself on and reached down to search for her gun. It wasn't there anymore. She swore under her breath and glanced back up the cliff, she couldn't see it anywhere. She glanced back at Aboud who was slowly pulling himself up. She slipped her knife out of the waistband of her trousers and managed to scramble to her feet as Aboud came towards her again. She flung the knife at him and it hit him exactly in his heart. He fell backwards down the cliff. He rolled away and finally came to a stop a further twenty feet below Ziva. She ran a hand over her eyes and sat back down.

* * *

Nick leapt out from behind the wall he was hiding behind when he saw Ziva leapt out at Aboud. He watched for a moment as they started to fight and was confidant that she could take him on and win. He leapt lightly down off the ledge and ran to go and help NCIS take on Nasri. He noticed that Tony was trying to think of a way up the ledge to help Ziva, while McGee and Gibbs had ran at Nasri weapons drawn. Nasri who was unarmed placed his hands in the air and waited until Gibbs was closer to him.

He lashed out, knocked Gibbs gun from his hand and punched him square in the face. Gibbs backed off and Nick jumped the last few feet on to the final ledge, this sloped downwards a few feet until it came to a final ledge that dropped in to the sea. McGee rather bravely proceeded to put himself between Nasri and his exit point as he went running back the way he came. Nasri changed tack and ran down the ledge, down the slope. McGee instantly took chase, and it didn't take long for Nick to level with McGee in the chase. Nasri skidded to a stop when he reached the edge. He glanced over and then turned back to Nick and McGee.

"Long way down, but I reckon I could swim it. Could you?" Nasri asked of McGee and Nick as they closed in on him.

"Back away from the ledge Mr Nasri." McGee said walking slowly to the side of him.

"McGee, back away from him, you never know what he might do." Nick sniped at Nasri. Nasri smiled at Nick, he smirked that smile when he knew that Nick was right. You never really knew what Nasri was going to do. He grabbed McGee's out stretched arm and dragged him backwards. He dragged them both backwards, both backwards over the ledge and in to the Danube River below them. Nick darted forward and paused only long enough to see the ripples that they had caused before flinging himself over the edge as well.

* * *

Gibbs had managed to clamber back upright again after Nasri knocked him flat and felt his head swimming. He managed to search around for a second and locate his gun. He grasped it in his hand and turned around to see Nick and McGee stopping at the bottom of the ledge. He started running towards it, yelling at Tony to follow him. He didn't care what happened to Aboud right now, but he didn't trust Nick to not put his agent's health before his job. He glanced around for Agent Carson who seemed to have vanished in the fray.

He spotted her watching the scene by the bottom ledge and he yelled at her to follow him, she yelled something at the same time as he said so however and took off for the ledge. Gibbs glanced back forwards in time to see Nick take a running dive off the edge. He raced to the edge of the ledge and grabbed Carson by the forearm as she caught up to him. Another man joined him by his side and Gibbs glanced towards him, a question burned in his gaze.

"Sam Kennedy, ASIS. Nick never ceases to amaze does he… your agent was pretty impressive too. Of course by what I could tell he got dragged over by Nasri." Sam said and Gibbs' eyes fell back on the water. The surface was perfectly still now and there was no signs of his agent, Nick or Nasri. It was silent for another few minutes until a scream was heard from behind them. Gibbs whipped his head around to see Tony scrambling up the second ledge. He had obviously paused in his attempts at getting to Ziva by what was happening to McGee.

"There!" Carson yelled. "Tim!? Tim over here!" She yelled and waved her arms around a bit. Nick and Tim had surfaced next to each other several metres out. Nick grabbed hold of Tim's lapel and began swimming one handed towards the edge, dragging McGee with him. There was no sign of Nasri but neither Nick nor McGee, who was now swimming on his own, seemed to care. They had swam for a few metres, swimming diagonally to the ledge as there was a slight slope that they could scramble up easier when Nasri appeared.

He appeared behind McGee and grabbed the younger agent by the shoulders and dragged him back through the water, his head slipped under and Nick managed to swivel in the water to be facing Nasri. He swam the few feet separating them and punched him in the face. He let go of McGee who was pulled back up by Nick spluttering. Nick pushed McGee away from him with the instruction of going back to the shore. McGee hastened to comply, and began swimming back the way they had been heading a few minutes ago.

Nick had managed to land another two punches to Nasri. Nasri had slipped under the water and Nick, treading water, had been glancing around when Nasri grabbed his ankle submerging him in the water. Nick took a last quick breath before his head vanished from the surface. He tried to kick out at Nasri but the man was tugging him down further. He released his ankle only to grasp his legs. Nick suspected this and managed to wriggle one leg free; he brought it up and kicked out, hitting Nasri in the shoulder. Nick managed to grasp the knife at his ankle. He brought it down hard through the water, which is surprisingly difficult. It connected with his chest, and Nick felt the knife penetrate his skin.

Nick brought the knife back out and kicked out at Nasri. The man floated away from him and gave Nick the propellant to get back to the surface. It took a long time to do so, and when he finally did Nick was desperate for oxygen. He took in several deep and quick breaths and glanced around, McGee was back at the edge. He managed to catch his breath and then continued swimming back over to McGee. Carson and Gibbs were helping him out while Sam stood by idly. Nick vaguely wondered where Ziva and Tony had vanished to.

* * *

She heard somebody shouting her name as she sat back down on the grassy slope. She twisted around and saw tony trying to shimmy down the slope to her. She groaned and glanced down at the body of Aboud. She would rather that Nick came for her but at least it was help. She thinks she twisted her ankle on the fall down and probably wouldn't be able to scramble back up without assistance. She could hear him more clearly now and upon a second glance could see he was very much only a few feet away. She waited until he was almost level with her before speaking.

"Aboud is dead." She said waving her arm unnecessarily over in his direction. He had landed face down the knife not visible but there was a large enough pool of blood for it to be obvious he was dead.

"I see that, are you okay?" He said glancing her over. "McGee and Nick went over the ledge I think." She snapped her eyes over to what she could see of the very large River.

"Nick likes water; he pushed me off a cliff in Brazil a few weeks ago." This comment was met by silence. Ziva waited at least five minutes before speaking again. "I think I've sprained my ankle, will you help me back up the cliff?" He nodded and glanced around quickly, before wandering over to the left of Ziva.

"Actually, Gibbs and Carson are down there… we can just walk this way and meet them at the bottom. It saves going up and then down again." He said and Ziva nodded rising to her feet. She stumbled a little and he ran back to wrap an arm around her waist. She leaned on him and he realised this is the only time she was ever asked him for help, when she was no longer his partner.

It didn't take long for Ziva and Tony to join up with Gibbs and Carson on the other side of the cliff and Ziva let go of Tony as he walked over to McGee to pat him on the back. He told Gibbs that Aboud was dead while Ziva lent against Sam Kennedy while watching the figure of Nick swimming towards them. She took his hand when he clambered out of the water, with Sam's help and the two looked each other up and down.

"You're soaked again." Ziva said plucking at his shirt, he grinned at her and replied.

"You are looking pretty battered again." She rolled her eyes in response and he placed an arm around her waist, she twitched away from his grasp muttering that he was cold but eventually let him lead her back to the car, Sam in tow. The NCIS agent stood watching as they calmly retreated the scene. "Nasri is dead by the way, stabbed in the chest, and might have hit his heart. No idea!" Nick called back over his shoulder.

* * *

Thirty hours later, one trip to the nearest hospital and a long car ride back to Beograd and Ziva and Nick collapsed in to two of the chairs in the airport waiting area. They had separated from Sam a few hours ago after he set off to board his own plane back to Australia. The doctors in the Serbian hospital had attempted to keep Nick in over night after supplying his with dry clothes and an oxygen mask. Sam had been around to concoct a break out however, and it wasn't long before they were on their way to the airport.

Ziva groaned and propped her bandaged foot up on the chair opposite her and leant sideways in to Nick. He shuffled in his chair and she let her head find the crook of his neck, his head resting on hers. It wasn't long before they had both started to doze off. Ziva's breathing evened out and became louder, Nick's body relaxed slightly, although his hand was still resting inconspicuously near his hip. Luckily Nick never actually fell asleep, as a man sat down next to them after a while.

"Looks like we're all on the same flight." He said and Nick glanced up at him. Gibbs looked straight back at him and for a long time it was just two men sizing each other up, their opponent. It was only when Ziva woke up did they break eye contact.

"Can't you play nice for two minutes?" She mumbled and they both looked at her.

"Are you okay Ziva?" Gibbs asked, glancing over her stiff posture, the doctor had kindly told her that her broken ribs that had only just healed were no bruised, badly from the fall. She had no real obvious injuries minus a sprained ankle and the bruising on her torso and arms. She glanced up at him and nodded slowly, thinking over the question.

"Yeah, it's just another bruise."

* * *

_Bruises are horrible. So, there is going to be another story after this. =] We'll see where it takes us after that. I'll have a story to upload for you when I get back from Greece. Don't know what it will be though!_

_Sequel to Cos if you go is on it's way to the final chapter. _

_Review? They make me happy._


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